Wait For Me
by hedahearteyes
Summary: Lexark (Elyza Lex/Alicia Clark). Alicia's world wasn't easy to survive in the first place, but adapting to this new world strengthens her in ways she never thought possible. Or, the one where Alicia's autistic.
1. Chapter 1

Nothing could have prepared her for this.

Nick's ranting and raving about Gloria merely three months ago sounded like yet another heroin-induced delusion. Matt's fever, she had thought, was nothing more than just the flu everyone said was going around.  
However, as time wore on, she was forced to confront her new reality. The dear neighbor who helped the family through Alicia's meltdowns became a snarling menace, arms outstretched through the fence in hopes of a meal. Swarms of rotting bodies groaned as they shuffled across sand dunes as she gathered supplies with the others. And, the most repulsing to her, a biter engorged with sea water clogged the Abigail's water filtration system, tainting what could have been her next shower.

But that was already in the past. The Abigail became nothing but a memory, as well as the man after whom it was named. Strand led them through Mexico for what felt like years after the death of his love, only to fall into a dangerous pattern of psychosis and alcohol abuse shortly before his self-inflicted demise. Travis and Chris disappeared into the desert and, though she hoped they were alive, most likely didn't make it. At least, that's the way Madison saw it. Alicia watched in horror as her mother crept into the cycle of alcohol abuse over the course of two weeks, though she wasn't nearly as damaged as Strand. She seemed to perk up a bit when Nick returned from his "exploration," as he called it. In the past, Madison would have been livid as she had been many times before throughout Nick's addiction, but the fact that he even survived five days alone in the desert was too much of a relief for Madison to analyze and criticize.

Now, three months after the outbreak, Alicia found herself back in Los Angeles, Mexico a distant memory better left untouched.

Madison sobered up for this day, unwilling even in her darkest corners to allow Ofelia, Nick, and Alicia venture out for supplies on their own. As expected, Nick adamantly denied any need for her company. Also as expected, Madison pulled the "you're an addict so you can't be trusted" card, to which Nick rarely responded. Ofelia avoided throwing herself in the middle of their confrontations, instead opting to focus on Alicia.

"How are you doing? They've been bickering a lot lately," Ofelia muttered under her breath, eyeing the mother and son thirty feet ahead of them, careful to keep her voice low.

"Fine." Alicia responded, albeit uninterested. She appreciated the fact that they finally made it past the taller buildings of the city and into the suburbs, each yard covered in either lifeless, brittle grass or chalky stones and cacti. She had few distractions for when Ofelia decided to poke and prod, which was every day, and figured pointing out how the dead grass looked like the grass in the Savanna was useless. She could feel Ofelia's eyes drilling into the side of her head, her peripheral vision confirming it. "What?"

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Alicia wanted nothing more than to roll her eyes. The arguments Ofelia thought were unsettling actually paled in comparison to when Nick was a teenager, sneaking out every night to score with his friends and returning a couple days later, frantic. "Yes."

"Okay, well...let me know if you need anything." Ofelia watched Alicia a moment longer, searching for any sign that Alicia would take up her offer and ease her nerves.  
No such luck.

Finally.

"Oh sweet, a liquor store!" Nick's voice jolted Alicia back to the space ahead of her.  
He jogged up to the barred windows, cupping his hands around his eyes to get a better look inside. He knocked on the glass between the bars and listened closely for any stirring within the store.

Alicia tightened her fists and pulled her chapped lips taut. Please, please... she begged any deity that may hear her internal pleas. The group was going on day two of no food. Alicia couldn't figure out what she hated more: the aching pit in her stomach or the jagged edges of skin across her lips. She relaxed her lips to run her tongue over them, instantly regretting the decision when the nerves beneath the cracked skin screamed back to her. Without thinking, she dug her nails into her palms at the sensation. Another mistake. A restrained sob croaked from her tightening throat. She hated the fact that she was thankful her dehydrated body couldn't muster up enough moisture to produce tears.

"It's okay, Alicia. I don't see any dead in there," Nick offered, turning his head slightly from the window.

She shook her head vigorously. Seriously?

"No? Can you hear any in there?" Madison took a step closer to her daughter, reaching out to stroke her arm.

Alicia slapped her hand away and choked on another sob. The frustration that had been building up over the past couple days was starting to boil over. Even worse, she couldn't find her voice to explain her distress, only further exasperating her. She continued shaking her head, desperately wishing the transparent doors to the store would open up so she could finally hear the crinkle of a Poptarts wrapper between her fingers, the sugary filling warming her tongue, and the smear of coconut or strawberry lip balm on her stinging lips.

But, instead, her family's usual unawareness drove her further and further into the unlocated pain ravaging her mind. It took every ounce of concentration she had to prevent her fingers from grabbing onto the roots of her hair and squeezing. "Food," she forced out in a husky whisper. "Food, food, food," she repeated, squeezing her eyes shut and pressing into her temples with the palms of her hands.

Ofelia scrambled to the door, ripping the board of wood from the handles and pulling the doors open, right hand immediately on the knife sheathed between her belt and jeans. After a sharp whistle and a kick to the ATM machine just inside the doorway, she turned, glaring at Madison. "Come on, Alicia," she held out her hand to Alicia, palm to the sky. The younger girl gently placed the tips of her fingers on the tips of Ofelia's, allowing the older girl to maintain contact as they entered the musty store.

The place was an utter wreck, with chairs carelessly thrown about, dirty papers towels and empty food wrappers littered across the floor. Dark, dried blood splattered the floors and walls. Red hand prints slid down the glass counter at the front of the store, continuing their path to the restroom in the back. Alicia grabbed Ofelia's hand, unable to stop her eyes from following the tracks to the dark blue door, barricaded by an overturned metal shelf.

Ofelia looked over her shoulder and immediately stopped to turn around and face her new-found sister. "It's in the bathroom, I have my knife. We're okay. This place doesn't look too bad, I bet you'll find something you'll like in here." She smiled, assuring, trying to get the wide-eyed brunette to look at her. Taking a few steps back and pulling Alicia with her, she grabbed an unopened bottle of water from the mess of items strewn upon what must have once been an organized shelf, keeping her eyes on Alicia. "Look, we've been needing this."

Alicia hesitantly turned her gaze to Ofelia's other hand, grasping a clear bottle of water with a blue label. "Thank you."  
Ofelia sighed in relief as Alicia twisted the lid and wrapped her lips around the opening, guzzling down about half the bottle before she stopped to breathe.  
"Here." Alicia handed Ofelia the bottle, and within seconds the remaining water was gone.

"Is it clear?" Madison peered in from beside the doorway, squinting to adjust to the darkness.

Nick strolled right in, caution to the wind. "I sure hope so, I'm not trying to become a snack on my search for some munchies."

"Nick," Madison warned. "Dark humor isn't exactly the best way to keep a light spirit in this situation."

Nick threw his hands up in surrender, back to Madison as he made his way over to the two girls in one of the snack aisles. "Anything good over here?"

Ofelia tossed another water bottle to Nick, then placed ten more in her backpack. "Can you get the rest?"

Nick went to work scavenging through the aisles for anything to drink, throwing each bottle he found into the disarray of his backpack. A glossy silver wrapper peeking out from under the shelves caught his eye. Excited, he snatched it and held it up for Alicia to see, a victorious smile plastered on his face. "Look Leesh, Poptarts."

"Poptarts?" Alicia whirled around, eyes bright, a laugh of pure joy bubbling out from her chest. "Really?!"

"Really really," Nick grinned and lobbed it over the shelf to Alicia. "I don't know what flavor it is, but I'll look for more."

"Thank you!" Alicia beamed at her brother before ripping at the package, immediately recognizing the light brown pastry with white icing squiggled over the top. "Cinnamon roll, my favorite!"

Ofelia felt a surge of glee course through her body. "You enjoy that, kid. Nick and I will pick up what we need." She glanced over to the open doors, a lock of blonde hair floating in the breeze by the entrance. "Madison? Are you standing guard?"

"Sure am," she replied, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over her chest. "This area seems to be dead, in the good way."

Alicia planted herself on a nearby chair. Her process for eating cinnamon roll Poptarts was precise, and could not be done any other way. It just wouldn't be right. She snapped off the long edges of the pastries, eating them as she went. Then, the shorter edges. The icing was the next to go, made somehow even more appetizing if it came off in larger pieces. Finally, she ate only the smaller pastry first, then the other. Though her hunger had overpowered most of her other senses for the previous half of the day, it was not so intense as to disrupt her specific pattern. Appetite satisfied, the burning issue of her lips became the next priority. "Ofelia, did you happen to see any chapstick anywhere?"

"Oh yeah, I think I saw some at the front counter," she called from the back of the store, hidden behind a cardboard cutout of a dinosaur from Jurassic World.

"Coconut, coconut, coconut," Alicia whispered to herself, hoping for yet another pleasant surprise as she marched to the bloody counter. A plastic container, to Alicia's elation, held tropical, strawberries and cream, and mint sticks of lip balm, destined to be shoved into her front pockets until they couldn't hold any more. The mint balm she settled on to soothe her lips first burned as she applied it, but this burn was that of relief.


	2. Chapter 2

Relentlessly, gusts of warm wind assaulted the group of survivors trekking across a strip mall. Abandoned shopping carts littered the empty parking lot, accompanied only by the occasional dented car. A mirage of heat waves hovered above the dilapidated asphalt.

Pizza Chief, Gap, Charlie's Toys, Nike...

"Mom, come on, this place is a gold mine," Alicia tugged Madison's arm, attempting to reroute to the Nike store. "We should all get new shoes, look!"  
She pointed at her lifted foot, jerking her mother to a halt. Her black Converse had long since turned grey, and the rubber sides peeled down to expose tiny holes worn into the sides of the canvas. "These will last maybe...two more hours?"

Madison crossed her arms and looked down at the shabby shoes, then flicked her eyes to examine the others' footwear. She let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine, we should search every store anyway. Nick, find the quietest cart out there."

Before Alicia could even enter the shoe store, Nick barreled through the open door with a plastic-wheeled cart. The front of it was built to look like a little car, steering wheel and all.

"Nick," Ofelia whispered urgently. "Are you crazy?"

"Me? What, is it the kiddy cart?"

A walker groaned from behind the checkout counter, failing to pass through the waist-high door separating it from the rest of the store. Nonchalantly, Nick removed an oversized pocket knife from the bottle pouch on the side of his backpack, plunging it into the dead man's temple, then yanking it back out once the creature slumped over. "One: the plastic wheels and exterior makes it silent compared to the others. Two: no, I am not crazy," he punctuated his last word with a swift slide of the knife across the front of his jeans. "I don't hear any others."

Delighted, Alicia and Ofelia ran to the back of the store, straight to the running shoes.

"Hey, be careful!" Madison hollered from the front door.

The girls combed through the whole supply before them. For whatever reason, perhaps out of habit, they replaced the unwanted shoes back into lidless boxes and placed them back on the shelves. Almost everything in their lives had to change once the dead came back. The most monotonous tasks of the old world became comforting, even if it was as simple as courteously keeping an aisle tidy.

"Look at these ones," Alicia motioned for Ofelia to walk over to where she was seated, a pink pair of running shoes with black mesh fit snugly on her tired feet, the laces double knotted.

"Those are cute! Did you see another pair?"

Alicia pointed to a box right across from her.

"Cool, we can match," Ofelia winked, Alicia rolled her eyes.

The muffled roar of a motorcycle passing the mall startled the 18-year-old, prompting her to rush to the front for a better look. By the time she got there, though, the vehicle was already gone, its motor suddenly cut off. "Mom, wh-" she turned her head only to see nothing where her mom stood. "Mom?"

"Back here!" Madison called from the very back corner of the store, most likely searching the stock room.

Alicia huffed, the rising panic in her body falling back down. She wracked her brain for a quick excuse to inspect the noise, apparently unnoticed or brushed off by the rest of her group. "Can I go to the toy store?"

Madison's eyebrows furrowed. She captured the "why" that nearly flung itself from her mouth, knowing after 18 years not to question her daughter's actions. "Alone?"

"Please, yes!"

Madison sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay, but you better stay aware of your surroundings, young lady. Take a weapon with you!"

"Got it," she turned on her heel and pushed the door open.

"Wait!"

"Whaaaat," Alicia twirled around, looked up at the ceiling, and bounced her leg restlessly.

"If you get into trouble, run back here! You better be quick with those new shoes!"

"Okay, okay, whatever," Alicia shouted over her shoulder, already halfway out the door.

The girl turned to her left and strolled down the shaded sidewalk. The motorcycle still hadn't reappeared or made any noise, nor did she notice anyone walking nearby.  
Though the toy store was just an excuse to investigate the rare noise, it soon became more and more attractive as she approached the storefront. Her mind wandered back to her home and the chest full of toys in her room. She remembered the first time Matt came over and asked to see what was inside, and how embarrassed she was to say "They're just toys, it's whatever." She remembered the way her boyfriend's face shifted into the softest expression she'd ever seen, and the way he asked first so gently why she still had them, and secondly how she used them when she answered his first question with "they're for stimming." An hour must have passed as she pulled each item out one by one, explaining what she did with them and for which situations they were most comforting. Stuffed animals, both light and heavy. A Rubik's cube. A tactical puzzle made of large polished, twisted nails. Breyer horses. A Perplexus ball. And among other things, one of her favorites: a yellow plastic board with multiple plastic gears of different sizes and colors, connected, all powered by a crank on the largest gear which, when moved fast enough, made the most amazing sound that filled her with glee even through memory.

She was forced back into reality when she opened the door of the toy store and a bell atop the door jingled, the echoes of it bouncing up to the high ceiling and back. Alicia froze, unsure of whether she was alone within the four light blue walls of the store. Several seconds passed and produced nothing but the fading echoes of the bell. Oh, thank god.

Her eyes scanned up and down the racks as she tip-toed up and down the aisles.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

She scrunched her lips to the side, unsatisfied by the lackluster selection.  
That is, until a huge woven basket of stuffed animals under the front window caught her eye.  
She pawed through the pile, picking up the ones she liked the test their weight. No...no...why aren't they heavy?

But finally, the short curly fur of a teddy bear brushed against her fingertips, and the slight resistance she felt when she pulled it to the top instantly calmed her. She held it up to lean on her shoulder, as if she was about to burp a baby, and straightened up to head back to her group.

"Oh, shit!"

A horde of about a hundred roamers shambled through the lot outside. The uproar thumped against Alicia's eardrums and shot straight down to her erratic heart. She knelt down below the window and peeked out timidly, her knuckles white around the arms of her bear.

One of the dead caught the girl's sudden movement and started shuffling to the glass. Then another. Then another. And another.

"No...no!"  
One of her hands released the bear's arm to fumble with the lock on the dense oak door. The lock clicked and the terrified teenager immediately scurried to the emergency exit in the back. When she threw it open, she was greeted by the rasps of four walkers. Too many.

She hurriedly jerked the door back into place and spun around to face the front. Walkers filled the space outside the windows. Their crooked fingers clawed at the glass, leaving behind streaks of red and black. Eyes wild, mouths chomping at the air, they pushed forward in a desperate attempt to smash through their obstacle and devour their next meal.

Tears dripped down her face. There was no way out, she was surrounded with only a chef's knife to protect herself. Her mind went blank as she sat on the cold, hard floor. She hugged the two pound bear to her chest and rocked herself, trembling all the while. "Dead, dead, dead."

Minutes passed as she struggled to find inner peace. Maybe this was her time, she thought. Maybe this was how she was supposed to die, maybe dying any other way would be against nature's intentions. Maybe her purpose was to be the walkers' distraction that her family needed to get out of the strip mall and live another day. Maybe she would be the one person who didn't reanimate, simply because the flock of ravenous zombies picked her clean like vultures.

More tears flowed down her cheeks, dribbling off her chin and onto her new companion. She allowed screaming sobs to rip through her throat. There was no point in staying quiet now, she figured. She was already a dead woman, it was only a matter of time.

Bright light flooded her peripheral vision. Over hot tears, she closed her eyes, although a bit confused. The walkers haven't entered the store yet, how could she possibly be dead?

"Get up, we can make it out of here."

A gravelly but exigent whisper forced her to snap her eyes open and whip her head around to the emergency exit.

There, surrounded by the rays of sunshine flooding in from the outside world, stood a blonde woman wearing an all-too-casual outfit of ripped jeans and a leather jacket over an olive green tank. She had a metal bat dripping with thick blood slung over her shoulder and a pistol in a holster around her waist.

Alicia could do nothing but stare up at her guardian angel. Her focus remained unbroken until the woman rushed forward, hoisted her up by the arm, and towed her out the door.

The bright light burned Alicia's eyes, and she reflexively brought the bear up to cover her face. Her rescuer tightened the grip around her wrist and sprinted, making sure the brunette behind her could keep up. At the increase of speed, Alicia lowered the bear and squinted, determined to focus on her feet to avoid tripping. The grunts of the dead on the other side of the building faded away as the two girls crawled under a warped area of a chain-link fence, separating the strip mall from a Walmart parking lot, and bolted through the lot full of deserted vehicles.

"In here, it's safe," the blonde panted and rounded the largest RV Alicia ever saw. The sides protruded and all the windows were tinted black, save the windshield. Alicia immediately recognized the danger of the transparent windshield, but was relieved to find there was a curtain separating the front seats from the rest of the interior as they approached the side door. The blonde opened the door motioning for the brunette to enter first. Relief rushed through her once again as she noticed the door swung out instead of in. She practically hopped up the steps into the safe haven and watched her hero close the door, lock it, then pull over another door from a compartment to the side and lock that one as well.

Alicia wandered farther into the RV and rigidly sat on a suede couch, hands on her knees, her bear sagging on the floor. She was safe in a spacious RV with a kind stranger, but nothing could stop the panic taking over her being. She began trembling again, and her breath came out in pants and was sucked back in with wheezes. She couldn't focus on anything, nothing in the RV seemed to sit still long enough for her to settle her eyes, and the back and forth rocking of her body only added to the effect.

"Hey...you're okay now," the gentle tone of the leather-clad girl did nothing to soothe Alicia. The calmer girl extended an arm to rub Alicia's back, but was met by violent thrashing.

Alicia kicked, pushed the woman's arm away, and whimpered desperately before flinging herself to the floor and a few feet toward the back of the RV, instantly curling her knees to her chest and tucking her arms between them. The cries tumbling out of her decreased in intensity as the minutes passed.

The other woman slowly sat down on the floor in front of her previous seat on the couch, careful to keep her distance. "You'll be okay," she tried again in the same tender tone, barely above a whisper. "I'm Elyza. You don't have to say anything to me until you're ready. We're safe in here, I've been staying here for two weeks and haven't had any issues." She offered a soft smile to the wide green eyes locked on her. "You're alive, you're okay."


	3. Chapter 3

The expanse of shoe boxes and racks before Madison amazed her. She'd worked in retail when she was younger, just starting out in adulthood, but she didn't remember a stock room being this expansive. However, she wasn't in there for the shoes or compression shorts - her focus was the possibility of a break room filled with food hidden among this maze. Shoes be damned, perhaps she could find a few cans of soup to feed her family and save the preservative-riddled snacks in their backpacks for desperate times.

Her developing survival skills rewarded her with a kitchen separated from the stock room by a heavy metal door. Upon opening the door, the stench of rotting flesh attacked her sense of smell, and a swarm of fat, droning flies scattered around her. It took all she had to stop the retch threatening to empty her stomach. Automatically, her hand grabbed a screwdriver from her back pocket. There was no need for the tool, though. The two bodies dressed in athletic clothing had bullet wounds through their heads, and, even if they hadn't, were past the point of being unable to stand and walk.

Madison ran back out to the stock room. With a tube sock, she fashioned a makeshift surgical mask, and put two other socks over her hands as barriers between her skin and the bodies of the deceased as she dragged them as far from the kitchen as she could.

"There," she stripped the socks from her hands and untied the sock around her face.

"Mom..mom!"

Madison turned to see Nick and Ofelia racing past the swinging doors to the stock room, passing the aisles and racks in an impressive time, their faces pale and eyes wide. Before she could ask what happened, corpses passed through the door and shuffled over the cold floor, locking on to their targets.

"In the kitchen!" Madison yanked the kitchen door open as if it didn't weigh almost three times more than she did. They all scrambled into the pitch black room. "Where's our flashlight?"

Nick felt for Ofelia, and opened one of the smaller pockets on her backpack. With a click, he illuminated a portion of the room, and moved his hand around to search the area. He'd never felt so lucky as when he noticed an LED lantern perched on the edge of the round table in the middle of the room.

Elyza knew nothing about this stranger, but that didn't stop her from asking herself an endless list of questions. Is she all alone? Why was she in a toy store? Why did she carry that bear all the way here? I know this is the apocalypse but god damn, why is she freaking out so bad right now? Why won't she speak, or at least look at me? She hasn't told me her name...maybe I shouldn't have told her mine. Or would that make her trust me more? Why would she even trust me? Why should I trust her? And...why do her pockets look so full? What's in there? It looks kind of like a bunch of bullets, but lord only knows what it could be, she doesn't even have a gun. At least, not with her...  
She'd already tried over the last ten minutes to relax the overtaxed girl sitting on the floor, but to no avail. Rubbing her back was definitely not an option, and she most likely wasn't in the mood for food or water quite yet. Even if speaking to this girl to try to calm her was done in vain, it seemed like certain moments were okay to utter complete nonsense, whereas other times the sound of Elyza's voice sent the brunette into another frenzy, with her hands shooting up to cover her ears and scratch her scalp just above them. So her last option was to sit and wait. For fear of disturbing the girl further, Elyza remained still as stone.

Her decision seemed to be the right one. Within minutes, every muscle in Alicia's body slowly slackened, and the girl took in a deep breath through her nose.

Elyza watched with concern, not wanting to speak again or make the wrong move.

Alicia looked up at her, head slightly bowed. Then her eyes dropped to her wrists, now crossed over her lap, legs imitating her wrists. "I'm sorry..."

Elyza hesitated. Could she speak now? Or did the solemn person in her company still need a moment? Alicia's troubled expression made up her mind. "Don't be." Another pause. "Are you okay?"

Alicia released a sigh. "Yes."

"Do you need anything?"

"Bear, please."

Elyza reached to her right for the bear, and stretched her body to place it in Alicia's lap over her hands.

The green-eyed girl didn't move, only sighed again, a lighter tone to it this time. "Thank you."

Elyza nodded, and deemed it safe to get up, pass Alicia farther into the RV, and open the cupboards to search for a snack. Alicia's eyes followed the blonde, which didn't go unnoticed. "Are you hungry?"

Alicia could feel the acid in her stomach burning up the membrane containing it. A package of two Poptarts weren't enough to sustain an eighteen year old for a whole day. On the other hand, her mother always told her it was a polite social convention to deny the first offer, and accept it on the other party's insistence. Or did that only apply to gifts...? Did this food count as a gift? "Um..." Her stomach groaned at her, telling her to make a damn choice already. Fuck social conventions. "Yeah, I'm really hungry," she looked away bashfully.

Elyza grinned. How cute...wait..what? The grin fell from her face, and she was glad Alicia didn't see it. Calm yourself, Elyza. You met her twenty minutes ago. A neutral expression returned to her face. "Sweet? Salty? I have pretty much everything."

Alicia's head perked up, eyebrows furrowed. "Have you had an Australian accent this whole time?" The seated girl turned her whole body, countenance unchanging, to face her new friend.

Elyza couldn't help but laugh heartily. "Yes, since I could speak, I believe."

"Oh...I didn't notice."

Elyza chuckled. "You didn't notice?"

"That's what I just said," Alicia's expression shifted slightly to convey confused annoyance. "Did I stutter?"

"No, no, it's just that my voice is usually the first thing people notice about me."

"I thought you looked like an angel," Alicia said matter-of-factly before she could stop herself. Oh my god. She cursed herself when Elyza lifted a brow with a smug smile. "Uh...you don't seem to utilize Aussie slang as much as I imagined someone from Australia would."

"Well, I'm not really from Australia," she shrugged. "My parents were born there, but they moved here before I was born, said they were worried about a dingo eating their baby."

Alicia groaned at the reference. "You did not."

"I did," Elyza giggled. "But no, I don't know why they wanted to move here before starting a family. Anyway, they were prim and proper, and in no way..utilized-" she crooked her fingers for air quotes, "- Aussie slang."

"Well...good, because I wouldn't know half of what you're saying if you used it."

Elyza wasn't quite sure if the brunette was serious or joking, but she laughed anyway. This girl amused her. "Are you from here?"

"Yeah..." her voice trailed off as she remembered the flames that engulfed the beach houses. Her family had assumed the entire Los Angeles area burnt to the ground, but were proved wrong when they ventured back from Mexico. She refused to let herself think of her home, knowing she'd be unable to cope if it did in fact burn.

It all hit her.

My family.

"We have to go back!" Alicia sprung up and jumped onto the couch to stare out a tinted window. "My family's in that shopping center! We have to get them!"

Elyza's eyes popped open and her blood ran cold. "Which store?"

"The Nike outlet," Alicia's voice wavered and a lump formed in her throat. "All those walkers..." she choked, and her tear ducts got back to work.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, I know what we can do," Elyza stepped up beside her and peered out the window as well, wishing she knew the other girl's name to aid her efforts in comforting. "We can just hop on my motorcycle and lead them down-"

"Your what?" Alicia's voice was bleak and monotone. She slowly turned her head to Elyza, eyes only snapping away from the window when her neck could go no further. "That was you?"

Elyza gulped, ridden with guilt. "I didn't know anyone was in there."

"You could have killed me!"

"But here you are."

"You're gonna be the reason my family dies!" More tears welled up in her eyes and spilled over.

"Maybe not. You guys have lasted this long, that means they're smart. They're probably holed up somewhere in the store. We can make a bunch of noise and lead them away. I have a car hidden like ten blocks down, we can ride to it and then drive the car back so we don't just draw them back with us. Then we'll get your family."

Alicia wanted to be angry, but she couldn't argue. Elyza was definitely right. Even if they were backed into a corner, Nick always had some way out, she thought. The tears slowed to a stop and she sniffed. "Okay." She looked back out the window to the motorcycle parked between two overturned carts. "But...I don't know how I'll do with all that noise."

"Not a problem," Elyza pushed herself back off the couch and rummaged through a drawer under the microwave on the counter. She proudly presented a pair of dark blue industrial ear muffs. "Will these work?"

Alicia's jaw dropped. "Why do you even have those?"

Elyza shrugged. "It's kind of hard to sleep when you hear dead people outside, I ran into Walmart right here and picked them up last week."

Alicia shook her head in disbelief. "Isn't that dangerous? What if they get in here? You wouldn't be able to hear it and you would die."

"Did you not see the door on this thing?" Elyza swung her arm out to motion to the front of the RV. "Well, doors. There's a third one I only close at night. And then, of course, the door to the bedroom is closed too. I'm untouchable."

Alicia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her thumb and forefinger pinching between her eyebrows. She hadn't known this girl for an hour and she already worried for her safety. "Just...be careful." She snatched the ear muffs from Elyza's hand. "And wipe that smirk off your face, you're lucky you lasted this long."

"Luck has nothing to do with it," Elyza chuckled. "I'm just a badass."


	4. Chapter 4

Alicia couldn't remember a time when she felt as free as she did on Elyza's motorcycle. The rescuer insisted on taking the long way to the hidden car, crawling up side streets just slowly enough for the horde behind them to keep up. She'd said it would "prevent the fuckers from coming back."  
The roar of the engine piercing Alicia's ear muffs didn't even bother her, it couldn't ruin such a perfect moment. Somehow, it all came together to form one sensory heaven in this new world: the steadily purifying air streaming over her closed eyes and pushing her wavy brunette hair behind her, the trembling bike beneath her awakening every numb, sleeping cell in her body, but perhaps the best part of it all was the warmth of Elyza's midsection encircled by her arms. Alicia forced herself to be patient as she progressively wriggled her arms under Elyza's leather jacket over the span of ten minutes, and her stealth proved to be truly magnificent. Elyza failed to notice the placement of the younger girl's arms until they arrived at their desired destination, ditching the walkers about a mile back.

Elyza was no fool. It wasn't enough to just leave the walkers behind at a park and hope they didn't continue to follow the bike as it zipped down the street at 80 miles per hour. She couldn't depend on "hoping" in this world. Her only "hope" in that moment was the grenade she chucked clear across the park, timed so perfectly that it detonated when the girls were already several blocks down. Her plan was a success: not a single walker could focus on the thundering chopper when a sizable chunk of the once blooming park burst into nothing but a pit. Alicia could have sworn she heard the other girl mumble "idiots," but couldn't be sure through the thick foam of her ear protectors.

Alicia's back stiffened at the sight of roamers filing out of the stock room of the Nike outlet when Elyza tapped her bat against a bench. The ping of metal on metal matched the distressing bellows of the deceased. 1... 2... 3... 4 of them approached rapidly, but not before Elyza could swing the bat to send three heads rolling. Shock paralyzed her when the hands of the fourth wrapped around her right arm from behind. She couldn't whip her arm around to her front without pulling the beast closer, and turning around would allow it the time to lean down and sink its teeth into the skin of her upper arm. Before she could bid the world goodbye, the peeling hands dropped from her arm and the creature fell to the floor with a thump. Elyza pivoted just in time to catch Alicia sliding her knife out of the walker's temple.

"Now it's you who's saved me, princess," Elyza smiled weakly at the brunette rising from a crouch. "Thank you."

Alicia abandoned "you're welcome," opting to lurch forward and pull the blonde into the tightest hug she could muster. She decided she'd never let anything take this girl away from her. If she had to run through a crowd of walkers, fine. If she had to drive her knife into hundreds more skulls and have to process the sickening crack of the brittle bone each time, fine. Even if she had to stand up to her own mother, who absolutely forbade newcomers. Fine. "Don't die."

"I might if you keep squeezing me like that," Elyza strangled out a laugh, and Alicia took a step back, blushing. "Let's check the stock room."

They edged through the storage area, wary of whatever else might be back there. Stray flies alerted them to death. Gripping her bat, Elyza whirled around the corner of a row of shelves to inspect the source. She was relieved to find motionless corpses. A path made from blood and entrails led them to a metal door. Dim white light filtered through the minute crack between the door and its threshold. Elyza raised the bat again.

"Wait," Alycia put a hand on Elyza's fists, gently lowering them. "If...they're alive, I doubt the first thing they'll want to see is your weapon. Especially with me next to you."

Elyza quirked her lips for a moment, then nodded. She opened the door.

The squeak of the hinges failed to cover the sound of a gun clicking. Elyza dropped the bat and lifted her hands, the weapon clamoring against the laminate.

Madison recognized her daughter and rushed over to hug her. "Oh my god, I thought you were dead," she squeezed tighter and tears escaped her eyes. Alicia was glad to see her mother, but not glad enough to enjoy this hug.

Ofelia kept her gun aimed at the stranger standing beside her "sister from another mister," as she called her. Elyza gulped.

"Ofelia, it's okay, she's with me," Alicia informed her and wormed her way out of the arms constricting her. "She's the reason I'm alive."

Madison turned to evaluate the new girl. "What were you doing over here when that shitstorm came through?"

"I..." Elyza debated in her head. She could tell the truth and most likely be hated, or lie and risk being caught, which would most likely make them hate her more. She glanced to Alicia for guidance, but the girl was too focused on the assortment of unopened cans scattered across the table in the middle of the room. "I brought them here. It was an accident though, I swear. I would never hurt anyone unless they threaten me first, and you guys were minding your own business. I'm really, really sorry. As soon as Alicia told me you were in here, we got on my bike and led them all away. I'm not a threat, really." Her eyes darted nervously between Ofelia and Madison, the business end of the gun still pointed at her.

"Ofelia," Madison raised a hand to her without breaking eye contact with Elyza. Ofelia lowered her firearm and stuck it back in its holster. "You almost killed us."

"That's what Alicia said earlier...I truly am sorry."

"You should be, if I lost my baby to those things to you I swear I would've-"

"Mom, chill," Nick hopped down from the counter and strolled casually to his mother, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "She saved Alicia and went through all this trouble to save us. She's good news, we should keep her around."

"I don't know, Nick. I told you guys, no new people."

"Please," Alicia spoke up, eyes shifting to her mother. "She knows life should be about more than just surviving, and she has the wit to fulfill that. She's a valuable asset, mom, we'll die out there without her."

"Alicia, we've already made it this far, I think we can handle going back to how we were." Madison crossed her arms.

"No." Alicia lifted her chin.

"Excuse me?" Madison asked in disbelief.

"No," Alicia repeated. "She's staying. I won't let you make her leave."

Elyza felt awkward being caught in the middle of a family decision, but she agreed with Alicia, even if only to stay with the girl a bit longer. "I won't get in the way, I'd be more than willing to prove that I'm trustworthy. And I know a place we can stay."

"You mean you know a place you can lure us to be killed?" Ofelia snapped.

Madison sighed, agitated. She locked her jaw and stared Elyza in the eye, unblinking, for half a minute. "Fine. But don't doubt that I will kill you if I find out you're faking."

Elyza nodded once and followed the group as they headed out to the parking lot.

"How exactly do you plan on getting us to this place?" Madison questioned, eyes squinting against the sun hovering low in the sky.

The honk of a Kia Forte answered the query, and Elyza held up the keys. "I'm not quite as unorganized as I look."

Alicia couldn't help but watch Elyza for the entirety of the ten minute drive to the outskirts of the area. She didn't care that the three passengers in the back seat could see her not-so-discreet ogling. Madison had cleared her throat at least twice, and rolled her eyes when her grunts had no effect. Though the blatant display of admiration annoyed Madison to no end, Nick was more than happy to witness it. As her big brother, he was prepared since he was five years old to protect his little sister from the emotionally unavailable boys he knew would be on the prowl. He'd be ashamed to admit it, but he decided to experiment a bit when Alicia turned fourteen. He remembered all the girls his age starting to talk about nothing but boys around twelve or thirteen years old, but not once did he ever hear Alicia babbling on about some boy, nor did he ever catch her eyeing one. His experiments consisted of taking his sister to the mall, under the guise of "just wanting to spoil my baby sister!" He knew his sibling would want to head over to the food court for pretzel nuggets and cheese dip exactly one hour into their shopping trip, and took the opportunity to observe her reactions. Countless times, he noticed very attractive boys her age pass by, nothing but smiles and 'hello's, whom she didn't care to acknowledge. At first he imagined it was just how she was at those exact moments in time, that she didn't want to be disturbed by anyone during her snack, but the girl later revealed to a shocked Nick that she just did not find them attractive and wanted nothing to do with them. Even Matt didn't quite spark her interest to this degree. He didn't receive several minutes of unconcealed gazing. Hell, she wouldn't even look him in the eye unless he asked. But within just the first two minutes of the drive, Nick saw firsthand the amount of eye contact Alicia could hold with someone if she really enjoyed it. And that was the thing he noticed: Alicia really seemed to enjoy Elyza as a whole. The first thoughts to ricochet across the walls of his mind were that Alicia was possibly gay. That would explain the cold shoulder she turned to all those boys. However, there were quite a few times an attractive woman would pass their table and he would most definitely notice, but Alicia still would not lift her eyes for more than a second, even as sweet perfume swept past the two. So maybe she wasn't exactly gay, either. Nick settled on the expression their neighbor coined back when his sister was just a little kid: "Alicia is just Alicia." And, if it was even possible, Alicia seemed more like herself than she had ever been. The smile that stretched her lips whenever Elyza connected their gazes was enough to convince him, as he never noticed his sister expressing anything other than her default stoic expression when someone ever did hold eye contact with her.

The ride came to an end when they reached the very top of a steep hill. Houses, or perhaps mansions, speckled the hillside, but this one was the icing on the cake. The towering abode rose three floors. The driveway itself was the size of the house. Solar panels tilted up from the walls surrounding the house, they tilted up from the entire roof, and panels held up by thick poles doubled as an open garage, already sheltering two other cars.

The steel mechanical gate to the driveway closed behind them and Elyza parked under the panel cover. "Welcome to my humble abode."

Ofelia's jaw dropped open. "Is this really yours? Like, you didn't claim it when the shit hit the fan?"

"It was my parents', technically. I never moved out. They always wanted me close and hey, you can't argue with living in a place like this, yeah?"

"Well, shit," Nick muttered.

Alicia unbuckled herself and shifted in her seat for a clearer view of Elyza. "If you can live here, why do you camp out in that RV on the other side of town?"

"Easy," Elyza prepared to launch herself into a full explanation. "Los Angeles, including its suburbs which we're in right now, was overpopulated. When, um... 'shit hit the fan,' thank you Ofelia," she smiled at the reeling woman in the back seat. "There were a lot of people who turned into roamers. I don't like to be cooped up, there's no way I could stay in a house for more than a couple days, even if it's this big, so I gave myself options. If I want to go explore or look for food, I can't guarantee I'll be able to come all the way back up here. You never know, a huge group of the fuckers could be blocking that gate, and I can't risk opening it and letting them in. So I have my options spread all over this suburban area," she turned to Alicia. "Like I said, I'm untouchable."

"That's cool and all, but what if living people steal your cars or raid your houses?" Nick leaned over Madison to get a better look at the woman in the driver's seat.

"The cars are expensive, so they're hard to hotwire. And they're rigged to set off the alarm if someone pulls the handles too many times, or if the glass breaks. I guarantee anyone trying to steal those cars will abandon them as soon as that alarm goes off, I don't think anyone's stupid enough to stick around something so loud nowadays. As for the houses, they're fortified and require keys. Or they're like this place and have high walls. But I'm not really worried either way, this city's so overrun by the dead that nobody wants to come near it, and they're not familiar enough with the suburbs to chance it."

Nick paused. "Sounds good to me," he shrugged.

"How could your parents afford all this?" Madison furrowed her brows.

"My mother was the best ER doctor in southern California, and my dad was best friends with President Jaha back when he was in office, but they kept in touch over the years. His birthday gifts to each of us were always over the top extravagant. He gave us these solar panels because he was tired of my mother complaining about the poor state of the environment," Elyza chuckled.

Alicia picked up on Elyza's use of past tense when talking about her parents, but couldn't figure out exactly what that entailed. Maybe Elyza figured that career labels didn't matter anymore and so abandoned them, or maybe... she hoped it wasn't the alternative.

The group couldn't believe their eyes when Elyza gave them the full tour.

The foyer had an oak door on either side, and a long royal blue carpet leading to the marble staircase straight ahead from the front door. Paintings of thunderstorms and ancient landscapes adorned the walls leading to the staircase, all framed with gold. Elyza allowed them some time to gape at the art before moving on to the left door of the foyer. The others shuffled from one painting to the next after half a minute, but Alicia inspected more closely. The thunderstorm pieces could have very easily been photographs with the way the "light" was so accurately distributed among the underbellies of the inky clouds. As for the landscapes, the grasslands rose from the canvas in thousands of short, pencil-thin strokes. Hidden among the shrubbery in one of the paintings were the initials E.L.  
Alicia couldn't remember seeing the initials marked on any of the other pieces. Elyza watched the brunette with crossed arms, amused by her darting movements to each of the canvases, squinting to inspect the same corner of each one to find a tiny black E.L.

"Moving on," Elyza called as she turned the doorknob to their next room.

Ofelia all but shoved Alicia away from the paintings to the open door, through which everyone had already passed a minute ago.

Through the left door was a dining room with a table to seat twenty-four, and through the left door, an indoor swimming pool and hot tub.

The second floor was just one long hallway intersecting the staircase, its appearance identical to a hotel, the numbers on the doors the only missing factor. Elyza told them they could pick any room they wanted, as long as it wasn't the rooms at the ends of both sides of the corridor. "The right one is mine, the left is off limits."

At last, they arrived at the third - and probably most impressive - floor. The third floor was one enormous room, and the lime green walls stretched up forty feet to the ceiling. On the left side stood air hockey, foosball, billiard, and arcade game tables, an ornate chandelier hovering over the area. A wooden ladder leaned up against the far wall and towered up to a little log cabin attached to the walls and ceilings, almost like an indoor tree house. A flat screen TV almost as large as a theater screen covered the middle of the expansive far wall. Beneath it was an array of cassettes, DVD's, and video games separated into three different bookshelves, the corresponding devices resting atop their respective shelves. Above the screen, near the ceiling, was a half-circular window, another to the far right of the room, and a possible third to the right, perhaps only visible to the interior of the ceiling cabin. Sunlight flooded in from the visible windows to illuminate the room. A fine idea, considering it cut down on the solar power gathered from the panels to provide more power to the bedrooms and electronics around the dwelling. The entire third portion of the room was a deluxe kitchen, with two of every appliance as if this was Noah's Ark for kitchen necessities.

"I can't remember the last time I watched TV, but I think it's also been too long since I ate, so if you don't mind..." Nick sauntered over to one of the humming refrigerators, and opened it to reveal...almost nothing to actually eat. Condiments, grape jelly, a bowl of eggs, and row upon row of soda cans and water bottles, nothing more. He shut the door.

"Aww, don't look so disappointed," Elyza taunted. "Check the freezer."

He opened the door to find all the shelves stuffed with stacks and stacks of microwave meals. "This is heaven on Earth, I've found it."

After dinner, the group of survivors picked their rooms to settle for the night. Nick watched gleefully as Alicia chose the room closest to Elyza's, basically confirming his suspicions. He left her with his backpack full of snacks and drinks, reminding her that her uncharged iPhone and its cable remained unmoved in the front pocket. Alicia hurriedly plugged it in beside the bed once her brother retreated to his own room and hopped onto the mattress to sit cross-legged, ecstatic that she finally had access to everything she'd missed so much for three months. All her photos, music, games, and digital books would finally entertain her once again. She scrolled through her music, selected Everyday by Carly Comando, and paused the song before it could play so she could mute the volume of her phone. She pressed play, placed the phone on her pillow, and watched the pink bar inch slowly across the song's time indicator. She rocked her up and body slowly back and forth, content. That is, until she realized she was missing something.

"My bear..."

Panic crept up her neck and scratched at her brain.

"No...no..." she dug through Nick's backpack despite her clear memory of leaving the animal on the floor of Elyza's RV. "No!"

A knock at the door shortly after her outburst made her cringe, but she called out a shaky "come in," anyway. Elyza poked her head through the door and pushed it open with her body, both arms behind her back. "Everything okay?"

Alicia restrained a yell and, with a slow, even tone, said, "No. I left the bear in your RV."

"You mean...this bear?" Elyza revealed her hands and the weighted bear they held, then rushed it over to Alicia.

Alicia sat the bear in the gap between her legs and pelvis. She looked up at Elyza, dumbfounded, unable to form words.

Elyza chuckled. "You went dashing out the door so fast there was no way you could've been holding this ten pound nuisance," the blonde teased.

"It's only three pounds," Alicia corrected.

"Awfully heavy for a plushie, is what I'm saying." She paused, glanced awkwardly at her shoes, and lifted her blue eyes to meet forest green. She stalled for a moment to ensure she infused her voice with as much pure curiosity as possible. "Why do you have it, anyway?"

Alicia sighed and looked back to watch the pink bar on her phone's screen, already at the start of another song. "I need it."

"Why?" Elyza monitored her tone.

"Because," Alicia huffed. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay, um...another question, if I may?"

Alicia nodded, eyes still on the phone.

"I see you're playing music, but...there's no sound."

"I can't listen to it right now, it wouldn't feel right."

Elyza contemplated possible reasons for that answer, but couldn't reach a conclusion. "What do you mean?"

"I can only listen to music in a moving vehicle, or else it doesn't feel right," Alicia replied pragmatically.

Elyza was stumped again. "But like...other than emotionally and maybe physically if it's loud enough, people don't feel music..?"

A pause.

"I do."


	5. Chapter 5

Elyza knew it was too early to be awake when dull grey filtered through the curtains in her room. The digital clock on her bedside table read 5:37.

"Damn it," Elyza whispered and pushed her head back against the pillow. In every day life, the Aussie bragged about her ability to sleep soundly through the night, never disturbed by illness, nightmares, or even the urge to pee. The end of the world humbled her. It delivered first a month of mostly sleepless nights, followed up the next month with mostly vivid nightmares, then (she hoped) tried to cycle through with early mornings. At first, waking up before the sun transcended the mountaintops was somewhat thrilling. Elyza fell into a routine of waking up, opening the curtains, and watching whatever walkers she could find reach their arms up like idiots in an effort to capture chattering birds swooping just over them in search of a meal.  
But now, it was just annoying. Waking up early wasn't exactly new to her, but before the dead roamed the earth she would wake up early to get ready for work, and spend the rest of the day challenging her body and mind. Without a job and with the impressive supply of necessities in her home, there was nothing to challenge her mind but the intellectual video games she'd completed a hundred times and nothing to challenge her body but the longest workout she could squeeze out of herself in the yard without any equipment.

Though, today felt like a better day for her. Maybe it was the company of living people, or maybe it was simply due to the fact that this was her first day back home in a week.

She heard no reason for anyone else to be awake, and so sluggishly made her way up the stairs, wearing only a tank top and sweat pants, to start the coffee maker and scramble eggs. It wasn't until she reached the top of the stairs that she realized she wasn't the only one awake. Alicia, dressed exactly as Elyza with the bedhead to match, stretched up on her tiptoes to examine the top shelf of one of the cabinets. The pale grey light of the morning barely illuminated the spacious third floor, but somehow lit up Alicia's form so perfectly. Her dark hair, although tousled from a night of sleep, appeared soft and glossy. Tan skin accentuated the gentle strain of lean muscle. She remained still for several more seconds, then sighed and closed the wooden doors.

Elyza hadn't realized she'd been staring until the brunette turned around and froze at the sight of company. Elyza smiled to cover her embarrassment and went to lean over the island table, opposite Alicia. "Didn't mean to scare ya," Elyza smiled again, this time sincerely. "Couldn't find anything?"

Alicia opened her mouth and closed it just as quickly, quirking her lips to the side. She tapped her nails on the marble surface supporting her waist and traced the patterns in the table with her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Elyza leaned closer, watching green eyes.

Alicia nodded once.

Silent again, huh? This girl was a mystery to Elyza. Every friend she'd ever made had been a chatterbox; silence among others was a rare indulgence. The brunette's body language didn't communicate anger, sadness, stress...anything, really. Her green eyes scanned the marble, but didn't appear to be lost in thought. Perhaps she just wasn't a morning person?

"I was going to make some coffee and eggs, does that sound good to you?" Elyza watched the other girl's eyes carefully, and was pleasantly surprised when they moved to gaze into hers. Another nod. "Are scrambled eggs okay?" And another.

The blonde turned on the Keurig and grabbed a skillet off a hook on the wall to cook the eggs. As she poked and prodded at the eggs with a spatula, the burning feeling of eyes on her forced her to look over her shoulder. Alicia was quick to avert her gaze, but not before Elyza could determine that those drowsy green eyes were fixed on her butt, and the blood rushing to redden Alicia's cheeks all but screamed 'I'm guilty.' She couldn't stop the smirk creeping over her lips when the brunette sucked in a breath and hurried to sit on a stool at the end of the island, all the while staring down at the floor.

"Do you know how to shoot?" Elyza turned her back on the eggs for a moment to watch Alicia for a nod or shake of the head.

"No..." Alicia said, disappointed.

Elyza had to stop her eyebrows from shooting right up to her hairline. And suddenly she speaks! "I was thinking about teaching you today. It's...very clear that Ofelia already knows how, and I imagine your mom does too," she laughed quietly, though none of the sleeping guests would be able to hear her anyway. "And I take it Nick doesn't even need to know how."

Alicia smiled and nodded, amazed that this girl could so accurately read her family in less than 24 hours.

"Oh, and I need to teach you guys how to scavenge once you and I are done with our lesson," she pointed the spatula across the island to Alicia, allowing her brows to rise.

"But we already know-"

"Oh honey, no," Elyza snickered and stirred the eggs once more before turning off the stove. "You've been doing it all wrong."

Alicia contemplated quietly. It wasn't until Elyza placed a plate of eggs and a mug of coffee in front of her that she spoke up. "What do you mean? Don't you just grab stuff and get out?"

"You need a game plan," the blonde settled in the stool beside her new friend and speared a lump of eggs with her fork. "Figure out how many dead there are in the area, know your exits and routes, prepare for the worst. It's better to make two trips than weigh yourself down so much in one trip that it gets too hard to run."

"We were doing just fine until someone on a bike resurrected the horde from hell."

Elyza swallowed and chuckled. "But if you had the right kind of plan, I wouldn't have had to rescue all of you."

"Oh bite me," Alicia mumbled and sipped at steaming coffee.

"Only if you ask nicely," Elyza rasped, voice unintentionally coarse. Although she couldn't complain, it clearly had the effect she aimed for.

Alicia gulped down her coffee and froze, despite the heat sliding down her throat. When a totally different part of her body warmed up, she figured it wasn't the coffee that sent tingles down her spine.

* * *

 _Layers of various powders and grit completely covered Elyza's face and neck - and would have coated the rest of her body, had she not been wearing tactical gear. Dry desert air brushed across her filthy face as she stood atop her unit's Humvee, on its way back to the barracks across the village. The majority of the village was still intact, give or take about a dozen buildings crumbling to the base._

 _Children raced down the dirt road alongside the vehicle, waving and giggling at the soldiers who smiled and waved back. Even after five months, Elyza couldn't understand a single word the kids hollered from the ground. Despite the language barrier, she looked forward to seeing her little buddies on a near-daily basis. The unit would stop on occasion to hand them bottles of water or little toys they picked up from a kiosk at the next town over, and the children would present stones engraved with hearts and smiley faces. Elyza always kept one of the rocks in her pocket as a reminder of how beautiful any place could be as long as it was inhabited by love. She refused to become bitter like half the men under her command._

 _The crackle of a radio strapped to her waist ripped her attention from the children slowly falling behind in speed. "Sergeant Lex, say again, over."_

 _"Break bre- ...Ev- ... 10-4 i-... sandbox, over?"_

 _Elyza managed to mentally pick out the message through the crackles and cuts after a solid couple of seconds. "Copy, no joes, over."_

 _"Break break-" the echo of gunfire rung clear from the radio, and gave the illusion of clearing the static. The men behind her stepped forward to listen to the message. "Tango Uniforms rising, need back up, over."_

 _Elyza furrowed her brows and glanced at the men now beside her as if they had any idea what that meant. They both shrugged. "The fuck..." she clicked the button on her radio. "Wilco, what's your position? Clear."_

 _The voice from the speaker directed them back to the town they just left and signed off._

 _"Sergeant?"_

 _"Fuck if I know," Elyza muttered, tightened the strap under her chin, and shouted directions at the driver to turn around._

 _The two men turned to face the back of the vehicle and readied their weapons. "Didn't we just clear a cell out there?" one of them yelled over his shoulder._

 _"Damn right we did," Elyza tightened her grip on the heavy machine gun mounted before her. "Can't wait to see how we're getting screwed over this time."_

 _By the time the Humvee reached their original location, flames engulfed the heart of the village and were steadily spreading outward. They slowed to a crawl and surveyed the chaos around them. People of all ages crowded around the vehicle and begged for help in a language none of them knew. Most of them were either burned, shot, or...were those bite marks?_

 _"Reynolds!" Sergeant Lex screamed down at the woman tensed in the passenger seat below. "What the hell happened!"_

 _"No word from anyone over here," she yelled back up and fiddled with the nobs on a clunky radio in her lap. "All communication stopped halfway here!"_

 _"Damn it!" The blonde gritted her teeth. They slowed to a stop, unable to move forward without further injuring any of the people crying from the ground. Elyza watched another group of people approach them, though these people looked too beat up to even be alive. They stumbled and tripped over their own feet, their arms swung in unnatural patterns. Their clothes and skin were drenched in blood, and whether it was their own or others', she had no clue. The sounds and smells of the encroaching mob invaded her senses as they neared the people around the Humvee, who screamed in terror as, one by one, the unknown beings pulled some of them to the dirt and tore into their flesh with bloodied teeth, while the rest ran screaming toward the outskirts of the village._

 _"What the fuck!" The two soldiers atop the vehicle backed away from the edges and shifted their widened eyes between their sergeant and the horror unfolding below them._

 _"Get us out of here, Anderson!" Elyza barked at the driver below. It took all of two seconds for him to slam his foot down on the gas and send the Humvee reeling down the gravelly road to their barracks, throwing Elyza back over her partners. The three of them rose only to their knees and watched dunes pass faster than before. Those...things trudged through the sand after them, some of the bodies from the village behind them and some coming out from the village to which they were headed._

 _Their stomping grounds for the past five months appeared relatively untouched as they entered the limits. The car hummed down the main road through the town, where the children usually greeted them with smiling faces and dirty feet._

 _But this time..._

 _The kids bared their teeth and staggered after the Humvee, arms outstretched and dripping with blood. Elyza couldn't tear her eyes from the gang of children she'd grown to love, almost as her own. She didn't care that tears stung her eyes and spilled over to clean thin ribbons of skin, and she didn't care that her partners could see it._

* * *

"Elyza? Are you okay?"

She snapped back to reality, back to the lush green lawn beneath her and the beautiful green-eyed woman standing beside her, face full of worry. "Yeah, I'm good," she smiled at the concerned brunette. "Ready to try targets?"

Alicia nodded and lifted a pistol up to peer past the barrel at a bright red soda can placed atop a tree stump. She steadied herself and pulled the trigger.

The bullet skimmed the side of the can, hurtled toward the 15-foot wall of steel behind it, and bounced off, never to be seen again.

"Well shit!" Alicia yelled, eliciting a chorus of groans from the walkers gathered at the other side of the wall, drawn by the noise from the previous misfires.

Elyza couldn't contain her laugh, and reached over to take the gun from Alicia and set it down on the patio table behind her. "Don't worry, you'll get it. Just not today...or this week."

Alicia glared, pulling more giggles from the blonde. "I'm not that bad."

"Yeah, and my ass isn't white as a polar bear," smirking, Elyza locked their guns into a silver case and opened the sliding glass door to the indoor pool. "We'd better stop riling up that horde out there."

Alicia rolled her eyes and stomped past Elyza, who followed and closed the door. They walked over to a refrigerator-sized safe in the tiny locker room adjacent to the pool. Elyza punched in the code, careful to cover the movements of her fingers with the case, and opened the vault. The brunette's eyes scoured the contents of the safe, taking note of the silver cases varying in size, most likely containing more firearms. Their respective registration papers sat on the bottom shelf, stacked neatly into three piles. Two of the piles were registration papers for Abby and Jake... Lex? Her eyes darted to the third pile, registered under Elyza Lex. She's never mentioned Abby or Jake... she thought. Perhaps her suspicions were correct, that this girl's parents weren't around to fire their own guns anymore. Wait a minute...Elyza Lex...E.L...

Elyza closed the vault and stared at Alicia questioningly. The girl's green eyes were about as wide as humanly possible, and her lips parted just slightly. "Yes?"

"You're E.L.! You painted those pictures!" Alicia pointed to the door to the foyer, bounded to it, flung it open, and scurried to her favorite painting: the lightning storm. She pointed at the tiny initials in the bottom corner, blinking excitedly at the blonde who followed closely behind in all the excitement. "You painted this!"

"I did," Elyza smiled sheepishly. "I'm not one to brag."

"You? Miss 'I'm Untouchable'?"

Elyza chuckled and wrung her hands. "I'm not one to brag about some things."

"I don't see why not! These are amazing," Alicia turned back to the painting and thoroughly admired the clouds for the second time since her arrival. "I really like this one. How did you..." she trailed off, wracking her brain for the words and sentence formation that made sense. Whatever it was she was trying to say eluded her, so she settled for simplicity. "The clouds. The light. How?"

Elyza shrugged. "I just did it, I don't know. My parents and I took a trip to Australia for six months when I was eighteen, and we saw A LOT of thunderstorms. I guess it was just stuck in my memory."

"That's amazing," she turned back to the artist, gazing deep into blue eyes. "You're amazing, really."

Elyza's heart pounded in her chest as she stared into green eyes. It pounded not only in her chest, but in her throat and ears as well. She swallowed, hoping it would clear the tension in her throat and allow her to speak. "You're amazing, too," her throat squeezed right as she finished her sentence, cutting her breath short and forcing her to inhale through her nose. Before she could stop herself, her eyes flicked down to Alicia's lips, then back up. I really hope she didn't see that.

A smile stretched Alicia's lips. Elyza was so cute when she was nervous. Though the brunette was just as nervous, she long ago mastered the ability to keep a steady face. Her shaking hands and thumping heart, on the other hand, never quite learned the lesson.


	6. Chapter 6

Nick jolted awake at the sharp knock on his bedroom door. He could faintly hear Madison's voice, muffled by the barrier. "Nick, get up! We're going out for supplies."

He groaned and rubbed at his eyes until stars danced behind his eyelids. "Everything we could ever need is already here, why risk going anywhere?" he yelled back.

"Just get up!"

On the other side of the door, Madison rolled her eyes and strutted up the staircase to grab some breakfast before their trip. The oven's clock read 11:21 a.m. "Can't believe he's still in bed," she shook her head and opened up one of the cabinets, grabbing two protein bars.

Ofelia hopped over the final step to the top floor. "Good morning." Her voice and overall self was energetic. A towel wrapped around her head to dry the soaked hair underneath. "I can't even remember the last time I took a shower."

Madison stared ahead blankly, wanting to smack herself on the forehead. "There's running water?"

"Yeah?" Ofelia answered, her voice rising at the end to form a question. "Haven't you used the toilet or washed your hands since we've been here?" The embarrassment slapped across Madison's face caused the Salvadoran woman to burst out into laughter. "You didn't go outside, did you?"

The older woman rubbed the back of her neck and looked at her feet.

"Oh my god!" Ofelia screeched and staggered to the kitchen island to support herself. Beads of moisture rolled down from the corners of her eyes, and she wiped at them before they traveled too far.

Sluggishly, Nick trudged up the stairs. He was met by Ofelia's bubbly shrieks. "What's so funny?" he grumbled, sat down next to Ofelia, and rubbed at his forehead.

"Don't-" Madison began to warn.

"Your mom peed in the yard!" Ofelia fell into another spell of giggles and harsh inhalations.

"Okay, fine, I did. But wrap it up, Elyza told us to meet her out front at 11:30," Madison trotted down the stairs all the way to the bottom floor. Now that she thought about it... How is Elyza getting all this water? The mother of two didn't stop to think about it upon discovering she no longer had to squat in the bushes, but now that she did, it seemed almost suspicious. The solar panels, okay. Those made sense. Lots of people had switched to solar energy before the world ended, but she couldn't think of anyone with what seemed to be unlimited water access at this point. Besides Strand, that is. However, since they were living on a boat, it was only logical that they'd receive as much water as they needed with the boat's desalination system. But up on this hill, they weren't surrounded by water, salty or not. She exited the mansion to the front yard and immediately spotted Elyza and Alicia seated on the edge of a magnificent fountain. Madison wasn't sure what made her more suspicious: the whole water thing or how close the two young women were sitting. She picked her battle, opting to grill the Australian girl on the water and save her other unconfirmed hunch for later. "Hey, Elyza," she called out, quickly approaching the still-functioning fountain.

Elyza twisted to greet her. "Oh, hey! Where are Nick and Ofelia?"

Madison noted the girl made no move to scoot away from her daughter. "They're almost ready. I have a quick question," she sized up the fountain and the generous amount of water spilling over a concrete dish held up by the noses of three concrete dolphins. "Where is all this water coming from?"

"The ocean," Elyza responded plainly.

Madison had no idea why she was already getting so exasperated with the younger blonde. "What do you mean 'the ocean'? It's seven miles west, do you have private pipes and a private desalination plant?"

"Technically, yes and no. It's not just to this house, a bunch of the other houses out here get the water too."

"Of course." Madison rolled her eyes and stared up at the sky.

Agitation scratched at Alicia's insides. Her mom had no reason to be so sharp with Elyza, and as far as she knew, Elyza had been nothing but helpful. Of course, there was the incident with her motorcycle leading an enormous horde straight to them, but she'd already brushed it off as an accident. Besides that, Elyza had saved all of them and provided food, shelter, and amenities nobody imagined would still exist anymore.

Before Alicia could open her mouth to chew out her mother, Nick and Ofelia closed the front door with an unintentional bang and made their way to the fountain.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road!" Elyza jumped up and held her hand out to help Alicia get up. The brunette smiled shyly and took her hand, unhappy that she had to let go once she was up.

* * *

Madison insisted on taking the front seat once Alicia opened the door. The teenager didn't have the energy to put up a fight against her mother, and so scooted to the middle of the back seat.  
She had to admit, this seat may have been better than the passenger seat anyway. She could watch the flawless driver from the mirror, and the blonde could glance up at her as often as she wanted without being caught by an overbearing mother or teasing brother. Elyza was thankful that Ofelia seemed to be the middle ground between the two, and that Alicia was terrain all her own.

Ofelia grew restless after twenty minutes in the car, crossing and uncrossing her legs, leaning her head on her own hand and then against the window. "I hate to be the four year old here, but are we there yet?"

"Almost, just a few more minutes," Elyza checked her rearview mirror to give Ofelia a look of reassurance, but the woman stared out the window and tried to focus on anything other than how bored she'd grown. Well, as long as I'm looking back there... Elyza shifted her attention from Ofelia to Alicia, and was delighted to find green eyes observing her reflection, unwavering. A smile spread across her face, and the brunette's reflection mirrored her expression.

Madison cleared her throat.

Elyza's eyes snapped back to the road ahead of her. Just in time, too, as the turn she needed to take was coming up in a few hundred feet. The car jostled side to side as it rolled over an uneven curb entrance to a parking lot just as disheveled.

"A...food bank?" Nick quirked an eyebrow. "Hasn't this place been picked clean?"

Elyza shifted the car into park and exhaled, stalling. "No. It's completely overrun."

Ofelia's eyes just about bugged out of her skull. "What do you mean completely? How many are in there?"

"A few dozen..." Elyza pressed her lips together tightly.

"Are you trying to get us killed?! Again?!" Madison chastised.

"I've already killed like twenty of them, but it got too risky! There's five of us, we can take them. And once we do, we'll have enough food to last us all for months, maybe even years."

Madison shook her head, but couldn't deny Elyza's argument. If they didn't claim the supplies, somebody else surely would in a matter of time, and it would be a huge mistake to pass off such a jackpot. She shoved her door open and stretched out, everyone else following suit. Elyza opened the trunk of the car and passed out backpacks, flashlights, and weapons: guns for Ofelia, Nick, and Madison, a gun and a bat for herself, and a gun and bat for Alicia.

Alicia shook her head at the firearm. "I could never hit the target, why are you giving me this?"

"Because you might need to save me again, princess," Elyza winked, pulling a blush up to Alicia's cheeks, and slammed the trunk down.

The group mobbed forward through the parking lot to the front doors of the food bank. The place was a concrete box with industrial metal doors that rolled up and down. Three doors spread across the front of the building, but only the middle one was intact enough to be lifted.

Elyza crouched down to the handle, and before pulling up, turned on her toes toward the group. "Stand back. Ofelia, take the left side. Nick, take the middle, and Madison, take the right. Alicia and I will take down any biters that stray. Everyone ready?"

They nodded hesitantly. Killing these creatures wasn't anything new to them, but they never dove head first into a herd for the sake of canned food. Even in their most desperate times, it wasn't something they would risk.

"3...2...1." Elyza hauled the handle upward and pushed the door the rest of the way up before backpedaling at top speed to join the family.

They heard groans before they saw anything in the pitch black opening. The noise grew louder as the lurkers shambled to the outside world, completely unfazed by the sudden barrage of light.

Nick was the first to fire, and shot four of the dead in a matter of seconds, each dropping to the ground and slowing the progress of the others behind them. Ofelia's shots plowed through every unfortunate walker that staggered over to her side, and she even managed to take out two with one bullet on a couple shots. Any time someone praised her for her skillful shooting, she brushed it off as just one of the many things her father taught her from his experiences.

Madison missed several shots, but was able to gun the walkers down before they could wander too far and fall into Elyza's responsibility.

The trio continuously pulled the triggers on their guns until Nick and Madison ran out of bullets and the horde pouring from the warehouse began to dissipate. The few remaining were directed through a clearing in the bodies aimed at Ofelia, and the unintentional corralling made her job easier and easier. One by one, she fired the bullets she'd saved from double kills at the neatly filed line of dead marching forward.

But before she could kill the final three, the gun clicked under her finger's pull on the trigger. "Shit!"

"I got you," Elyza said as she pulled her gun from the holster on her belt. One bullet razed a single reanimated corpse before her gun clicked as well. "Son of a bitch," she mumbled and bent down to pick up her bat. Just as she started to straighten up, the bat slipped from her hand and clanked back to the ground. The dead inched ever closer, getting more excited as they neared their prey. Elyza cursed herself for developing butter fingers at the worst possible time, and prepared to drop to her back and roll over to avoid those blunt claws that were somehow able to rip the flesh right off the living.

Alicia tightened her grip on her bat and swung, her power surging forth from her legs, just as a softball player would swing. With a nauseating crack, her bat connected with the walker's skull and smashed the bone to pieces. The creeper behind it tripped over the motionless body, and Alicia brought the bat down like an ax, shattering a second skull within five seconds. Her breath came heavy, the adrenaline coursing through her body made her want to run a mile and throw up all over the asphalt.

Elyza wrapped her arm around the girl's waist to steady her as Nick, Madison, and Ofelia hurried over to check on her. The blonde slowly lowered herself to sit on the ground, guiding Alicia down with her, until they both sat with crossed legs.

Alicia struggled to steady her breathing, and forced her stomach to retain its contents. She brought her knees up and rested her head between them as Elyza rubbed soothing circles into her back.

Nick squatted down beside his sister. "You did great, Leesh. I don't know what we'd do if you weren't here."

Alicia nodded and shuddered. However, she was confused. Though it wasn't necessarily a daily occurrence, she'd killed the reanimated on multiple occasions without a problem. The adrenaline was something she concluded would never go away, but the nausea subsided after her first few encounters on the way to and in Mexico and never returned until now. Although...this was the first time she witnessed and participated in the slaughter of a horde this large..

With a few more deep breaths, Alicia stood up and pushed the hair from her clammy face. "I'm okay, let's go," she tentatively picked up the bloody bat and lead the way to the open door. Madison and Ofelia's flashlights clicked on behind her, illuminating two broad circles ahead of her. Shelf after shelf lay on the floor and on top of each other, undoubtedly knocked over by the inattentive zombies that once inhabited the warehouse.

"I don't think I've seen so much peanut butter in my life," Elyza muttered, pawing through the jars and checking the expiration date on each top. She shoved every jar with a reasonable expiration date into her backpack. "We need a cart."

Alicia slid her backpack off her arms and took her flashlight from the pocket to search for a cart. She shone the light to the right corner of the warehouse, just in front of the right door, and spotted a multitude of overturned carts. They appeared to have been a makeshift barrier at some point, though it obviously wasn't as successful as the victims had probably hoped. She stepped over dented cereal boxes and bags of moldy bread as she approached the carts. With each step, she more clearly heard what sounded like a yowling cat with a chest cold.

The others lifted their heads from the pile of jars and cans to focus on the sound.

"What in the world..." Madison stood up first and pointed her light toward the overturned carts. "Alicia, what is that?"

"I don't know," Alicia's call echoed in the ceiling. She crouched down and aimed her light through the upside-down baskets of the carts. Something moved in the rear of the barricade. The criss-crossed metal of the carts before it obscured her view too much to identify what it was, so she went to work setting the carts upright and pushing them away from the mess. The wails became more urgent and throaty with each cart moved. Alicia couldn't believe what she saw once she finally got to the cart in question. "Oh my god."

A toddler with flaky grey skin and tiny rotting teeth stuck its fingers through the holes of the capsized cart and gnawed at the bars. It grew desperate, scooting the cart a little closer to Alicia in small spurts. The others walked over to the cart, none of them believed what they saw was real. The wall of the cart finally reached the toe of Alicia's boot, and the decaying child tried in vain to reach and bite through the holes. Alicia took another step back and held the cart in place by placing her foot atop the basket. "What do we do? I can't kill it..." she glanced down at the toddler. "It's just a baby..."

"Not anymore," Nick mumbled.

The group stood in silence, contemplating their morals. Alicia was right, it was just a baby. But Nick was also right, it wasn't a living baby.

"We can't let it...be this way anymore." Elyza gently touched Alicia's forearm and caught her gaze. "I'll take care of it. Grab a cart and pick up whatever you want, I'll join you guys after."

Alicia turned from Elyza to look at the baby, then back at Elyza. "Okay," she slowly lowered her leg from the cart and headed over to the other carts, followed by her mother, brother, and 'sister'.

"Look, drugs." Nick joked snidely and pushed his cart to an upright shelf of medical supplies.

"Nick," Madison spurned his dark humor. "Maybe you shouldn't be the one looking through that stuff."

"Aw, that hurts," Nick feigned woe, a hand over his heart. "I know what we need.

Madison sighed. "Fine."

Alicia found comfort in the closest thing to shopping she could have now. The variety of cans, boxes, jars, and bags around her provided a sense of hope, that so many good things could still exist in this hellhole planet. Her stomach growled as she picked up can after can of ravioli and dropped them in the cart, and it growled even more when she lifted cans of sweet corn niblets by the armfuls.

The atmosphere on the ride back to the house was heavy. Despite the joy of their bountiful haul weighing down the back of the car, the air around Elyza fell heavy upon all their shoulders. The infant's blood splattered across her jeans reeked of death, but the sorrow deepening the blue of her eyes was more disheartening. She did not take her eyes off the road. She did not eye-flirt with Alicia from the mirror. Even Madison didn't glare daggers at the woman beside her.

And still, upon arrival, the mood remained glum. It was still mid-afternoon, yet everyone remained inside once they finished bringing in the supplies. Ofelia, Nick, Madison, and Alicia stacked the cans of food atop each other in the basement, their vision aided only by a dinky lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and a grimy window. Madison and Ofelia chatted about how glad they were to find certain items at the food bank, Nick inspected the expiration dates, but all Alicia could do was worry about Elyza. The blonde had retreated to her room just minutes after parking the car and hadn't emerged since.

Madison always claimed Nick could read Alicia's mind, and every time he would say 'no mom, I just pay attention.' Even within the periods of time that heroin flowed freely through his veins, he paid attention because he knew his mother never would. Through the highs, withdrawals, and sober days, Madison catered to Nick, so Nick catered to Alicia. The stories he heard of older brothers torturing their baby sisters angered him to no end, and he vowed both to himself and to his sister that he would never be that unnecessary demon. He noticed all the little things, like her favorite foods and songs. He noticed all the big things, like crumbling friendships and the budding of her relationship with Matt. All the while, Madison preoccupied herself with Travis and Nick. He knew on some level that his mother wasn't ignoring her only daughter on purpose, but it irritated him almost as much as it vexed Alicia. He couldn't believe that even in the apocalypse, he was still the one to catch Alicia's subtle, subconscious signals. If he had to, he could write a whole list of each quirk and the feelings attached to it, but this one was new to him. Structured tasks like stacking and organizing always engaged Alicia completely, but her attention was anywhere but the can of green beans being tossed anxiously between her hands. He weighed two possible reasons: one, perhaps she was still reeling from the murder spree outside the food bank, or...maybe, just maybe, Elyza's inaudible agony dug its roots into Alicia, making her worry unlike Nick had ever noticed before. "Hey, I think someone should check on Elyza. Alicia?"

Ofelia continued stacking, fighting off a smirk. Madison stared at Nick, giving the look every child grows to fear. Except Nick.

"She seemed pretty upset. I think she's more comfortable with Alicia-" he motioned to his sister, can in hand, "- than the rest of us. Right Leesh?"

Alicia's mouth gaped almost as wide as her eyes. "Um-" she looked to the ground when Madison pointed her gaze to the brunette. "I uh...yeah, you're probably right. I'll see if she's okay."

Madison dropped her gaze to the cans once more, and Alicia took the opportunity to mouth 'thank you' to her brother. He smiled and nodded once before Alicia practically sprinted up the stairs to climb from the trap door beside the staircase, previously covered by a rug. Her legs carried her up the steps faster than her brain could process, and before she knew it, she halted right in front of Elyza's bedroom door and knocked.

No response.

"Elyza?"

Still, no response.

Slowly, as to give the other girl time to react, Alicia turned the doorknob and pushed forward, poking her head through the opening before slipping inside completely and closing the door behind herself.

Much like the foyer, Elyza's room exhibited more paintings, although these ones sparkled with fantasy, while the works downstairs depicted nature and calm settings. Smaller canvases of glittering galaxies and somehow majestic two-headed deer hung from the walls without frames. White christmas lights encompassed the canvases, drawing a slight shine from the paintings with glitter. A dresser with a long mirror on top sat beside the window, straight across from the door. Polaroid pictures clung by their corners between the mirror and its frame. Alicia recognized Elyza in several photos, all with different people, but one thing remained the same: her clothing. Elyza sported an Army combat uniform in the pictures. The fact that it wasn't a costume couldn't be denied, a patch with "LEX" in capital letters sat proudly on one side of her chest, and a patch indicating a sergeant clung to the other. For that brief second, Alicia mentally thanked her brother for being so obsessed with the military at age eleven, otherwise the symbol may have completely passed her by. One second, she was thanking Nick. The next, a flood of curiosity washed through her mind. Sergeant Lex...? She inspected the photos one by one. Most of them appeared to be taken in the same area with different people. They stood on sand in those photos, the background being either more sand, a huge truck, or a brick wall. Alicia's eyes followed the string of pictures lining down the side of the mirror, and once her eyes fell to the dresser itself, stones scattered across the wood enraptured her. Stark greys, faded yellows, and subdued reds differentiated these rocks from any Alicia had seen before. Uneven carved lines on some of the stones formed smiley faces, hearts, and short phrases in a language her history teacher touched upon for maybe ten minutes in sophomore year.

The creak of a door spooked Alicia. Her back tensed as she whirled around to identify a possible threat.

Was it a threat? No. Was it a threat to her tentative grasp on her sexuality? Damn right.

A short maroon towel wrapped around Elyza's body, leaving very little to Alicia's imagination. Embarrassed as she was, the brunette couldn't find it in herself to move, not even to turn around or avert her eyes.

"See something you like, princess?"

Alicia's conscience screamed at her to turn around and apologize, but its insistence didn't do much to help the paralysis locking her muscles in place. A familiar tension screwed tightly in her lower abdomen, and all she could do was exhale sharply. You idiot, say something! "Um...sorry."

Elyza smiled brightly, leaned against the door frame, and crossed her ankles. "Are you really, though?"

The blonde's easygoing attitude relieved Alicia and allowed her the freedom to shift her weight to one leg and stick an arm out to support herself on the dresser. "I don't think so," she admitted with a small laugh.

"I didn't think so either," Elyza shook her head, amused. She used her shoulder to push herself upright and clutched the towel on her way over to the dresser, fixing her eyes on the drawer just behind Alicia's thighs. "I need to get in there," she spoke without thinking, but panicked once she realized what came spilling out. "Uh, I mean, like...the drawers...the dresser, I need to- my clothes are in the dresser." Jesus fucking christ, Elyza. She reminded herself to promptly smack her own forehead in Alicia's absence.

"Oh! Sorry," Alicia moved to sit gingerly on the bed, her back to Elyza. "I didn't know you were in the shower, I just wanted to see if you were okay."

The Aussie picked out sweatpants and a sports bra from the two separate drawers. She decided against teasing the embarrassed girl, but just this once. "Thanks. I'm okay, just needed a shower," she fibbed, adjusting her boobs in the bra until they looked perfect. "You can turn around now."

Alicia flipped over to relax on her stomach, the tension in her gut coiling impossibly tighter at the sight of Elyza's shirtless upper body, graced by outstanding abs. "Nice."

Elyza quirked an eyebrow to pair with the devilish smirk pulling at her lips.

Oh my god why. "I mean..." Alicia sighed in defeat, once again exposed by her own candor. "Yeah. Nice. Um...Sergeant?"

Elyza's expression changed completely. It didn't fall negatively, but she definitely wasn't prepared to reveal that part of her past. "At your service," she smiled gently, reassuring the girl on the bed that she wasn't upset, and sat cross-legged beside her. "How did you know?"

"The pictures," Alicia motioned with her chin to the mirror. "Nick was obsessed with military stuff when we were kids, I recognized the patch on your uniform."

"You never fail to surprise me," Elyza chuckled.

"Where were those pictures taken?"

Elyza paused, unsure of what to say. The last thing she wanted was Alicia to see her as a monster. But then again...after the incident inside the food bank, she considered the girl lying beside her didn't jump to judgment. "Iraq. That was my last deployment. I was there when the world started to fall apart."

"How did it happen?" Alicia's eyebrows furrowed, her eyes searching for answers. The beginning of the end flew right over her head. She was too involved in school to pay attention to the seemingly mindless chatter online, and her family failed to mention anything about the walking dead or fallen cities. They went so far as to block it from her as it crept up on them from afar, inching nearer and nearer as the days passed.

"It happened way too quickly," Elyza shook her head slowly. "The day it hit the village where I was stationed...everything felt so normal that morning. I got up, put on my uniform. Nothing felt out of place. My unit didn't have much to do that day, besides driving around making sure everything was okay. We got a breakfast from this cart just outside the base, the guy barely knew English but god, did he put in the time and effort," she smiled to herself, eyes closed, remembering the man she'd befriended over the course of her deployment. "Every day, he had a little translation dictionary. He told us his goal was to use a new word in conversation every day, and he taught us the same word in Arabic. I think he tried to tell us about what was happening on the other side of the country, but he couldn't find a direct translation in the book. We thought nothing of it, we thought maybe there was just gonna be a quick scuffle and that would be the end of it. So we went over to the next village over, there was only one other unit patrolling there. Everything seemed fine there, too. I mean, there was a store robbery and some kids beating on a smaller kid, but other than that, nothing. So we drove back, we were gonna head to the base for lunch, but when we were almost there we got a call on the radio from the unit we just left in the other town. From all the noise coming from that radio, I could've sworn another war was about to start. We rushed back, but when we got there..." she took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "Chaos. Absolute chaos. Buildings were on fire, people were covered in blood. They were screaming, we couldn't move through the crowd. And then the biters came. They must've been people who died in the fire, or maybe it was a horde that grew as it moved from village to village. All I know is that we got our asses out of there as fast as we could. We saw a few on the way back to the base, didn't think to shoot them. We couldn't risk it, if it was just an illness and we shot all those civilians, we'd be in deep shit. But we got back to our village, and the people there were starting to turn. The base was the only safe place, and they didn't let the civilians in." Elyza chewed on her lip, fighting back tears before continuing. "I don't think I'll ever forgive them for that."

Alicia sat up and gently cupped Elyza's cheek with her hand, swiping a rogue tear away with her thumb.

Elyza placed her hand over Alicia's and turned her head to kiss the girl's palm. She lowered their hands and played with Alicia's fingers. "They all knew it wouldn't stop. I guess the SMA sent out a general message saying soldiers were to be deployed wherever they wanted, for their final days. They expected us all to die. Most of us went back to our families, those without families went to their dream vacation spot. Everything beyond that final 'deployment' wasn't organized. If I had to guess, they probably just phrased it that way to prevent the panic they knew would surface. I don't think anybody's ready to die... you can be one cocky motherfucker like me, but as soon as you stare death in the face and have your head between its jaws, you're just as scared as everyone else."

"Was it already happening here when you came back?" Alicia whispered and watched Elyza's fingers trace over her own.

"No, I got here about a week before the dead. At that point, America already started rejecting incoming international flights, except the military. I think infected planes brought it here, I can't think of how else it would've infected the country. I kept in contact with my parents, I called and told them why I was coming home and they didn't believe me until they checked the news online. But once it got here, it was over. Nobody knows where it started because the reports came pouring in from like fifteen states at once. People arriving at hospital emergency rooms were immediately shot down, so everybody hopped in their cars and drove to the next safe state before the borders could close."

"And...your parents?" Alicia hesitated, unsure if she'd overstepped.

Elyza exhaled and steadied her breathing, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I'm sorry, you don't have to talk about it," Alicia amended, reaching up again to wipe away the beads of water falling down Elyza's cheeks.

"No, it's okay," the blonde's voice quivered. "My mom worked in the emergency room on the other side of town. When everything came here, they called her in, they needed all the help they could get. She called me after one of the patients woke up thrashing around and bit her. While she was disinfecting the bite, the National Guard stormed the place and eliminated everyone. There was a kill order on every hospital in the state. As for my dad... I don't know. He was out golfing, and he never came home. If he survived, he would've shown up by now."

"I'm so sorry..." Alicia wrapped her arms around the other woman, resting her head on Elyza's shoulder.

Elyza turned her head and kissed Alicia on the forehead, much to the brunette's surprise. "You guys are my family now."


	7. Chapter 7

Alicia spent half the night staring at the ceiling. Thought after thought rushed like a whirlwind through her head. She'd been so wrapped up in Elyza and her story earlier that she failed to notice the blonde's fairly obvious indications of affection until now. The kiss to her hand and forehead... not easily mistaken for anything but affection.

Butterflies fluttered so strongly in her stomach she had to arch her back and stretch for relief.

It had crossed her mind that she hadn't even known this girl for a week, and that actions that straightforward may be a bit bold. Immediately, she shook the thought away, refusing to allow society's old regulations creep into her head the way her teachers hoped it would through years of "social training." This was a new world. She could die any second.

Even if death wasn't just two steps behind at all times, Alicia couldn't help the bubble of joy that rose through her body at the thought of Elyza liking her. She hummed as silently as she could to release the joy bubble's pressure without waking everyone, and little giggles tumbled up her throat unexpectedly. Jesus, I hope Elyza's asleep.

Just as Alicia began to relax into the comforter beneath her, the door at her end of the hall creaked open and light footsteps crept toward her door. Praying Elyza hadn't heard her, Alicia held her breath and focused on the padding of bare feet on the hallway's thick carpet. They paused, but shortly after passed her door and continued, thumping up the stairs the same time Alicia let out her breath to stop the tingling in her legs.

The pounding of her own heart kept Elyza from sleeping. She expected unbearable emotional pain after opening up to Alicia, yet none came. Of course, she did get upset while talking about what she'd seen and experienced on her deployment, the fate of her mother, and the unconfirmed fate of her father, but nothing beyond the tears she shed in Alicia's presence. She believed opening up to be therapeutic, but she never expected it to be so intensely alleviating. The lack of judgment in Alicia's eyes most likely contributed to this newfound comfort, or maybe it was how gently the green-eyed girl touched her cheek and dried her eyes.

She didn't mean to tell Alicia that she thought of her group as family. It was much too soon, perhaps downright wrong to become so vulnerable to them. For all she knew, these people could be planning to kill her and take the property and supplies for themselves. Or worse... they could just leave abruptly, Alicia in tow.

The mere idea of never seeing Alicia again stopped her heart for a split second. No, she couldn't ever let that happen. She survived on her own in this wasteland for months without breaking a sweat, but that was before she accidentally endangered the girl - perhaps, ironically, the best thing she ever did in the apocalypse.

But screw not meaning to tell Alicia something so sentimental, she definitely didn't mean to kiss her, not even something so platonic as a kiss on the hand. I didn't mean to, but I definitely wanted to, she counseled internally. Letting her guard down could be dangerous in the new non-society, yet, somehow, she felt like Alicia was worth it.

Chill, you've known her for like three days.

Elyza sighed and pulled herself out of bed. There was no way she could fall asleep being so riled up. The clock on her bedside table read 2:53 a.m. "Jesus," she muttered, slipping on sweatpants and a hoodie.

Tip-toeing didn't offer much help, considering her creaky door and the floorboards beneath the carpet that rasped with each light step. If Alicia wasn't awake before, surely she is now, Elyza figured. She paused momentarily outside the closed door, debating. Maybe just a peek, to make sure she's okay... but it would be best not to. She was completely unsure if Alicia's feelings mirrored her own. There were no clear signs to her observance. Straight girls wipe their friends' tears, right? ...Ugh.

Thinking better of it, she resumed her trek down the hall to plod upstairs. Even if she hadn't a clue about Alicia's emotions, Alicia undoubtedly noticed her own... right?

"Fancy seeing you here."

Elyza just about shot up to the ceiling at Ofelia's soft voice from the kitchen. "Jesus, what are you doing up so early?" She clutched at her chest as if it would slow the beat of her racing heart.

Ofelia waved a half-eaten apple beside her head, both elbows supporting her on the kitchen island. "Couldn't sleep."

"You do know apples are like the coffee of fruits, yeah?" Elyza headed straight to the refrigerator for a glass of water, lifting an eyebrow at Ofelia as she passed by.

"Well shit, I wish I'd known that half an apple ago," Ofelia groaned.

Elyza perched herself on the seat across from Ofelia. "I'll keep you company, I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight either."

The dark-haired girl set the apple down and leaned forward slightly. "Are you okay? It seemed like that little kid really got to you."

"I'm fine," Elyza waved her hand, trying to brush off the other girl's concern. "It just kind of reminded of someone I knew, not totally uncommon nowadays."

"I feel that," Ofelia sighed and picked up her snack. "After my mother passed, it seemed like every dead woman I found looked like her. Maybe my father experienced the same thing, he...lost it, ended up burning himself alive. He talked about her constantly, saying she was everywhere."

The blonde took a sip of water, pressed her lips together, and stared down at the table. "I almost want to go to the hospital my mom worked at, but I'm not quite sure what I'll find."

"You think she's still there?"

"I have no idea," she shrugged. "If she is, at least I'll get some closure, you know? See what became of her..."

"What about your father?"

She shrugged again. "For all I know, he could be alive and well. Haven't seen him either, though."

"I'm sorry," Ofelia watched Elyza carefully, eyes full of concern.

They sat together, silently, both contemplating the whereabouts of everyone they had once known. Aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, coworkers...either alive or eating the living.

Minutes later, Elyza broke the silence. "How did you meet this group? You guys don't look related."

Ofelia chuckled. "Is it that obvious? Madison's husband and his son took refuge in my father's barber shop when the riots began. My parents and I went back with them to their house, to their family, and we all traveled together. They've grown on me, I can't imagine being apart from them," Ofelia smiled softly. "Nick's like the best friend I wish I had before all of this, Madison's the overprotective mother my mother tried so hard not to be, and Alicia's like the little sister I never had."

"Where are they now? I mean, Madison's husband and his son."

"Travis and Chris... just like your father. No idea."

Elyza hummed curiously. "How are you guys doing, considering?"

Ofelia sighed, a guilty smile playing at the corners of her lips. "Honestly, things are much better with them gone. Chris started going down a dark path, I could swear he tried to kill Alicia. And, of course, Travis denied it, so he and Madison argued like 24/7," she rolled her eyes. "I can't really read Nick, but he seems perfectly fine with it, and I think Alicia's probably just happy Chris isn't around to scare her anymore."

"What did he do to her?" Elyza clenched her fists on the table, nearly seething.

Ofelia furrowed her eyebrows at the blonde's subtle reaction. "Wait a minute..."

Christ, here we go. Elyza stared up at the ceiling, avoiding eye contact.

Ofelia gasped, an open-mouthed smile stretching her face. "You like her, don't you?!"

"Shhh!" Elyza flung her hand over Ofelia's grinning mouth. "You're going to wake everyone up!" she whispered vehemently, now making steady eye contact. "Can I remove my hand now?"

"Yes," Ofelia whispered, and Elyza withdrew her hand. A smile still lit up her face. "Oh my god, does she know?" Another gasp. "Does Madison know?"

"Jesus, no!" Elyza whisper-yelled. "Are you mad? She'd kill me!"

"Hell yeah she would," Ofelia laughed, eyes wide open. She set her apple back on the table to direct all her focus to the woman in front of her. "She is waaayyy too protective of Alicia, that poor girl's on a tight leash."

"Is it worse than what I've seen already?"

"Oh yeah, girl," she nodded, eyebrows raised. "Like I understand being protective of your autistic child, but this is like, way overboard."

"Autistic?"

"Oh, yeah, don't tell Alicia that I told you, she'll be furious with me. She hates it when people treat her different when they find out. You should've seen on Strand's boat, she roasted him because he started using a second-grade vocabulary when he talked to her." Ofelia cackled at the memory. "She used words so complex we hadn't even heard of them before, but man can that girl roast!"

"Wasn't planning on it. But...this is going to sound so ignorant. God. She doesn't...seem..?"

"No no no," Ofelia wagged her finger and shook her head. "Definitely do not say that either. I can't help you much with figuring her out, but I can tell you not to treat her differently or ask something like that."

"And how did you find out not to ask that?" Elyza countered.

Smirking, Ofelia spun the apple around the counter. "Strand. Again," she laughed. "What an idiot, I swear. He told Alicia that she didn't seem 'off.' Bad word choice, right? Like...anyway, she glared daggers at him and said 'and you didn't seem stupid, clearly we both made assumptions.'"

Elyza grinned and shook her head. "I'd better do some research, I don't want to end up a crispy-skinned fool like Strand with all that roasting."

"What, like on the internet? It's been down for weeks," the brunette sighed.

"There are these things old people would read, they're called books."

Ofelia stuck her tongue out at the woman across from her. "Good luck on finding one, you'd be better off talking to Nick."

Elyza's apprehension and anxiety must have been plastered across her face, as Ofelia chuckled on her way down the stairs, leaving Elyza with no company but a half-eaten, browning apple.


	8. Chapter 8

"Elyza, you've got to be kidding me! We could be searching for food! We could be siphoning gas!" Madison scolded Elyza out front by the fountain.

"What's got her worked up now?" Ofelia leaned on the front wall of the house beside Alicia, eyes studying the feuding women.

"Elyza wants to go to a library," Alicia stated, arms crossed, a subtle smirk curving her lips.

Ofelia knew immediately what the blonde planned to do. She pushed forward from the wall and strolled casually to the two blondes. "Library, huh?"

Madison sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Don't you think we ought to be searching for gas? Food?"

"I don't know, it seems like Elyza has food covered... where did the apples come from, anyway?" Ofelia turned to Elyza.

"Oh, I haven't shown you guys the backyard beyond the side door," Elyza twisted to look at the house. "I have fruit trees and chickens."

"Chickens!" Madison yelled and threw her hands up. "What don't you have?"

"Patience for this conversation."

Ofelia covered her mouth to subdue a cackle.

However, Elyza's face remained stony. "You can do what you want, but I'm going to the library. Want to come Ofelia?"

"Sure. Alycia!" she turned to the house. "Let's go!"

The brunette grinned and trotted down the walkway and under the solar-panel canopy to Elyza's car.

"Oh no, absolutely not," Madison warned as she stalked toward her daughter. "You don't know what could be at that library."

"Nothing worse than what I've seen," the teenager leveled, sat down in the passenger seat, and slammed the door.

The tension rolling off Alicia hammered into Elyza the whole ride to the city's library. Ofelia's attempts at putting the girl at ease by naming stray walkers fell in failure. "Dipshit" usually amused Alicia to no end.

None of them could say they were surprised the library sat completely untouched, unoccupied by both dead and living. Though, Ofelia did make a good point that this wealth of knowledge would have benefited those who were smart enough to think about it in the first place.

The three girls exhibited completely different goals for the trip. Ofelia snooped around in backpacks, shelves, and every doorway she could find in search for more supplies. Alicia stuck to the front of the store, surveying the array of knick-knacks. And, as planned, Elyza scoured the psychology section for something, anything. Freud, Freud, Freud. Jung, Jung, Jung. The sections of each book "dedicated" to autism contained a skimpy page of information, if that. Just as she contemplated calling it quits, the last copy of the DSM-5 toppled down with the last book she jerked from the shelf. Triumphantly, she plopped down on the floor and cracked it open. The table of contents didn't provide a clear-cut path to the information she needed, so she scanned each paragraph, page by page. Finally, a header saying "Autism Spectrum Disorder" ended her search.

Some of it made sense, some of it didn't. Her mother always told her that nobody ever fits every symptom or sign description, no matter the issue. She'd noticed Alicia did things the book failed to mention, and didn't do some of the things it did mention. Overall, however, the description fit.

"So you know."

Elyza yelped, dropped the book, and whipped her head around to the source of the statement.

Alicia stood stiffly behind Elyza, eyes fixed on the manual, face expressionless.

Elyza couldn't read the brunette, and as a result, couldn't formulate an answer.

"Who told you?" The question was flat, devoid of a rise to indicate it was such.

Elyza considered lying, saying she just had a hunch and wanted to investigate.

"Was it my mom?"

The blonde stared up at Alicia, still reeling. "No. Ofelia told me." Alicia opened her mouth to talk, but the guilt eating at Elyza's entire being compelled her to explain further. "She was saying your mom is too protective of you because of it, she didn't mean any harm. I don't care. No, I mean, like, I do care, but not in a bad way. I don't think of you any different, you're just you, and I like you."

The few moments Alicia spent processing Elyza's ramble stretched on for eternity through the blonde's eyes. Alicia turned over the last bit of the speech in her head repeatedly. I like you, I like you, I like you. She cracked her fingers and nodded once.

Elyza rose from the inflexible carpet. "Are you mad?"

Alicia shook her head, eyes migrating from the book to Elyza's left hand.

"I don't know what to say," the blonde uttered.

Shockingly, Alicia smiled. Elyza couldn't begin to fathom why she did, but it dawned on her that that's just how it would always be with this girl. Going with the flow was all she could do, perhaps Madison struggled so much with her own daughter just because she insisted on trying to swim upstream every time the current pressed her forward. Ofelia allowed it to guide her. However, Elyza aspired to rise to Nick's level: swimming along with the current, keeping up with it and occasionally maybe, just maybe, paddling ahead.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Elyza wondered aloud.

"Nobody ever understands," Alicia raised her eyes to meet Elyza's. "I hide it as much as I can around you. People don't handle it right."

"Then I'd love to know the right way to handle it, straight from the source," she encouraged. "I don't want you to feel like you have to hide."

"Just don't judge me," Alicia shrugged. "I do what I need to do when I need to do it, if I can. Everyone should have that freedom."

"Is there anything you need to do right now?"

The brunette sighed and made the conscious effort to allow herself to let go in Elyza's presence, to just be. She clasped her hands together and twisted her wrists while humming a single tone, high-pitched. She pushed through the anxiety of stimming in front of someone she barely knew, and forced herself to acknowledge that nothing bad was happening, and that Elyza's expression lightened into a smile and gaze of adoration.

"Sweet freedom," Elyza beamed, delighted by the prospect that this girl trusted her, even if only a wee bit.

The humming broke into a single giggle before ceasing.


	9. Chapter 9

As expected, Madison fumed upon their return to Elyza's residence.

Alicia simply did not have the energy to engage. She kept her eyes lowered and focused on the ground as she trudged to the front door.

"You can't just run off like that, Alicia. Look at me," Madison followed the young woman.

"Chill out, jeez," Ofelia called and jogged from the car to catch up with the two while Elyza gathered Ofelia's findings from the trunk. "Here, you're not you when you're hungry," Ofelia laughed and tossed a half-melted Snickers bar from her pocket at the mother of two.

"This isn't funny, Ofelia," Madison scolded. "There are better places to scavenge than a library!"

Elyza carried a full backpack on each shoulder as she joined the group. "I thought it was worthwhile. We found all this stuff and I learned something new."

"What did you find at the library?" Madison glanced at each of the over-stuffed backpacks.

"Water, protein bars, candy, batteries, clothes," Ofelia tallied on her fingers. "And I grabbed a DVD of Titanic just for the hell of it."

"I love that movie," Alicia smiled, eyes still pointed downwards.

"See? Worth it." Elyza breezed past the other blonde and opened the front door. "Let me get this stuff up to the kitchen and I'll show you guys the trees and chickens."

"Oh, that's right," Ofelia lit up as she climbed the stairs behind Elyza, Alicia and Madison at the tail end. "Did your parents go all out with the preparations as soon as the dead started walking or what?"

They reached the top floor and Elyza set the bags down on the kitchen island. "We always had the trees, fruit's always better straight from the source. As for the chickens, I found them while I was raiding another house up here, figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep them."

"How many are there? Trees and chickens," Alicia asked.

"Two apple trees, an orange tree, avocado, plum. Six chickens, they eat whatever falls off the trees. I still have chicken feed in the shed though, just in case." Elyza led the group back down the stairs, through the pool room, and out the side door. A chain link fence separated the grass from the concrete of the driveway. "I do shooting practice over here, away from the chickens," she emphasized, then walked along the side of the house before turning the corner to the majority of the backyard. "And there you have it, my own little grocery supply."

The yard itself was twice the size of the base of the house. There were two steel roll-up doors on the back wall of the house, similar to the doors of the food bank they raided. The back of the yard was tiered up the mountain, with a wooden staircase cutting down the middle for easy access to the levels. The fruit trees stood in a line on the other side of the yard, flanked by towering eucalyptus trees. A made-from-scratch chicken coop the size of a small RV sat behind the line of trees, obscuring a portion of the concrete wall that surrounded the entire property. Black, red, and brown chickens strutted throughout the yard, clucking and turning their heads in darting movements to inspect the newcomers.

"Are they friendly?" Alicia watched the chickens slowly draw closer.

"Usually, yeah," Elyza approached the chickens steadily. She spoke gently as she scooped up a black chicken with a missing toe and carried it over to the group. "This one's pretty docile, want to hold her?"

Alicia nodded and cradled her arms to support the chicken Elyza handed over. The hen settled into her arms. "Nick thinks chickens are evil."

Madison laughed, a first for Elyza's ears. "That's because your grandfather's rooster attacked him when he was five."

Everyone chuckled. Elyza pointed at a red chicken pecking at the grass. "If any of them are evil, it's probably that one. I swear she glares at me."

As if on cue, Nick turned the corner and strolled over to join them. "Those things better stay away from me."

"Here, just pet this one," Alicia smirked and moved toward her brother.

"Hey, watch it, it could peck your eye out!" He jumped back, hands up.

"She would never," Alicia stepped back to stand beside Elyza and shifted the chicken to one arm so she could pet its back with her other hand. "She's sweet, see?"

Nick stepped forward to get a better look.

The hen turned her head to watch him with one eye and let out a long, low cluck.

"Okay, nope, she has it out for me," Nick backed away.

Elyza laughed and reached over to pet the animal, but the chicken did the same thing. "I think she's trying to protect you, Alicia," Elyza lifted both brows in astonishment.

"She's always been great with animals," Nick commented, still keeping his distance. "Even evil chickens."

Alicia shrugged and continued stroking along the hen's back and neck.

Ofelia pointed at the tiers ascending the mountain. "Those would be perfect for gardening. You could grow carrots, potatoes, all sorts of stuff."

"I suppose I could," Elyza placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head. "Huh. We'll have to look for seeds on our next outing."

"Speaking of," Madison interjected, "what's the plan for the next run? We need more clothes, trying to sew up all these holes would be a waste of time."

"Feel free to use the clothes in your room. But if you don't want those then sure, I wouldn't mind a little shopping," Elyza smirked. "I need to find more laundry detergent anyway."

"You have a working washing machine?" Alicia looked up from the hen.

"And dryer. I imagine nobody's doing much washing nowadays, so finding detergent shouldn't be hard."

"Okay, I hope you realize how privileged you've been through all this." Nick stated. "I took my first shower in two months yesterday, and these-" he motioned to the slightly oversized gym shorts and crewneck hanging on his frame, "-are the only clean clothes I've had in three months, and they're from the room I'm staying in."

"I realize that," Elyza's apologetic eyes met Nick's. "I wish I could have met you guys sooner. One day out there is too long, let alone three months or more. But I've had my fair share of hardships through this."

Alicia pictured the photos on Elyza's mirror. She recalled Elyza's story of the people in Iraq, especially the young children who succumbed to the same fate as the poor souls groaning and gurgling in the streets of Los Angeles. The hen lifted her head to stare at Alicia when the girl stopped petting her.

Nobody ventured forward to ask Elyza what exactly she'd seen and experienced. Something about the way she spoke implied enough.

"If you guys want anything off the trees, just go ahead and grab it." Elyza offered. "I think I'll go upstairs and hang out."

Ofelia and Madison made a beeline for the apple tree and Nick plopped right down under the orange tree and rested his back against the trunk to watch the chickens.

Alicia stood motionless for a moment, the only thing grounding her to the earth was the chicken rubbing its head against her chest. She turned her head to examine her family. They seemed to be content staying outside in the sunshine, separated safely from the undead. Alicia set the down chicken, steadying it on its feet before letting go and rounding the corner to the side door to enter the house. She climbed the stairs up to the top floor, and a light sense of bewilderment dawned on her. Elyza wasn't in the kitchen, nor was she seated in front of the TV. Alicia quickly realized the giant box-like structure toward the ceiling on the left side of the gargantuan room was the last remaining hiding spot. She scaled the wooden ladder to the door of the cabin, painted to look like the heart of a jungle. After a soft knock and an inviting "come in," she pushed the door open, crawled inside, and closed the entrance.

The shack certainly had enough room to seat six adults. Light streamed in from the half-circle window in the wall, illuminating the exotically painted interior, which portrayed lush plants and vibrant flowers. A bookshelf beside the window held novels of all genres, a pair of sleeping bags sat rolled up in the corner on the other side of the window, and multiple pillows leaned up against all the walls.

Elyza, seated smack dab in the middle of the cabin, lifted her gaze from the copy of Dear John in her lap. "Hey there, princess."

"Hi." Alicia smiled. She scooted over to position herself in front of Elyza, back rested on a pillow against the wall. "That's a good book."

"Yeah, this is the millionth time I'm reading it," she chuckled. "Kind of heartbreaking, but fuck if it isn't well-written. What's your favorite book?"

"Don't make fun of me." Alicia clasped her hands together and twisted her wrists. "It's considered a kids' book."

"I promise not to make fun of you," Elyza smiled genuinely.

"Fever 1793."

"I remember that one," Elyza shut her book and slid it across the floor to the shelf. "I think I read it in fourth grade. Nobody else in my class really liked it, I thought it was interesting."

Alicia cracked her knuckles and tensed her brow as she sorted through her mind in an effort to convert her thoughts on her favorite book into words. It certainly evoked strong positive feelings within herself, and she wished she could rave about it articulately, but even basic sentence structure and word formation evaded her in the moment. She clicked her teeth together, barely separating her jaws enough to create the space needed to clamp them back together to produce the sound.

"Take your time, you can tell me about it whenever," Elyza reassured. "If I'd known you liked it I would've looked for it at the library."

Alicia huffed through her nose and hummed a brief, single tone. "Next time."

"Of course." Elyza uncrossed her legs to slide across the floor, settling beside Alicia. "Any others books that pique your interest?"

"I'm actually not much of a reader, it's hard to find something interesting."

"Not even a series with multidimensional characters?"

Alicia shrugged. "Can't relate to them, usually. And...I don't know, they can be confusing. I think a character's good and it turns out they're bad, vice versa, and everyone's always asking me 'how could you not see that they were bad?' As if it was obvious..."

"It might be to them. It's... unfair that they don't realize it might not jump out at you the same way. 'Unfair' isn't the word I'm looking for, but whatever." Elyza waved her hand, dismissing the inaccuracy.

"Yeah. But I guess not everyone learns about that by looking through a diagnostic manual," she smirked at the blonde. "Which, by the way, fails to explore the intricacies of the disorder."

"I figured that, you're not simple like it made you out to be."

"I hate that thing." Alicia chuckled and swayed side to side, nearly touching Elyza on each movement to the right. "Not too fond of most psychologists and psychiatrists, either."

"Did you have to see them a lot?"

"Constantly." She rolled her eyes. "And unless they're a specialist, they're likely to be severely under-educated on autism. Even then, it's questionable. They're always like 'you can't be autistic, you're a girl. You can't be autistic, you can talk. You can't be autistic, you're bad at math.' Blah blah blah." She groaned. "It's ignorant, it's annoying, and it's ableist."

"Ableist?"

"Ableism is discrimination or prejudice towards disabled people. And like homophobia or racism, it's not always obvious. Like, nobody's gonna come up to me and say 'I don't respect you because you're autistic.' They might believe and spread inaccurate information and then fight me on it when I tell them they're wrong, or they'll say autism's a tragedy. They won't listen."

"I think I can understand that." Elyza nodded. "I'm gay, so I've experienced my fair share of prejudice."

"You are?" Alicia's heart skipped a beat. She couldn't quite pick out what it was, but something stirred up something inside her. Hope and excitement were her best guess, though she'd never explored the prospect of an interest in girls. "I had no idea."

"I actually thought I came on a bit strong a few times." Elyza snickered.

"Like when?" Alicia stopped swaying and scrunched her eyebrows when she peeked over at Elyza.

"Like when I came out of the shower with nothing but a towel on and you were there ogling me like I was a fresh snack." Elyza grinned wolfishly.

"But I...I don't- I'm..." Alicia bumbled over an explanation and denial. Surely the little "average" body language she exhibited was telling, wasn't it? Denying that she'd ever been attracted to a woman felt like an irrefutable lie, and any interest in men was certainly out of the question. After Matt's death, she felt as though she could examine her preferences without guilt, but never actually embarked on that journey. Then again, she couldn't blame herself for paying more attention to surviving. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Elyza laughed, "I mean, I do look stunning in nothing but a towel."

Alicia tapped her middle fingers against her ankles, a smile stretching her lips. "I guess I can't disagree with that."

Elyza dramatically feigned offense. "You guess? Alright, I see you."

"Would 'suppose' be better?" the brunette offered jokingly.

"I guess." Elyza quipped. "But you'd have to 'suppose' you think I look 'nice' with no shirt."

Alicia yelped at the reminder. "At least I didn't say I need to 'get in there,'" she countered.

"Ah, touché," Elyza chuckled and shimmied her body down to lie on her back. "But I must say, for someone who's supposedly not into girls, you gawk at me a lot.


	10. Chapter 10

The whole gang sat at the dining table downstairs. Really, it was more of a meeting table, since nobody ever ate on it.

"I thought we could talk about what to do next. I know Madison mentioned needing clothes," Elyza gestured to the other blonde, "I need to find laundry detergent and dryer sheets. Does anybody need anything specific?"

"Binoculars and rechargeable walkie-talkies." Alicia stated matter-of-factly.

"How are you always coming up with good ideas?" Ofelia elbowed the girl next to her.

"Can you make a list of everything in your phone?" Elyza asked Alicia.

The brunette pulled the device from her sweatpants' pocket and typed the items into the notes app.

"What are you even able to do on that phone anymore, besides music and notes?" Nick leaned over to watch Alicia type.

"I can still take pictures and videos. Some of the games still work, they don't need an internet connection. And I have movies downloaded."

"Maybe I should've kept mine." Nick slumped back into his seat.

Madison rested her arms on the table. "When are we making this trip?"

Elyza shrugged. "We could go today, if you want. There's a thrift store at the bottom of this hill, down that main road a couple blocks, and a market right next door. There's a wagon in storage I can pull out so we don't have to carry everything on our backs."

"We're walking?" Nick asked.

Elyza nodded simply. "Only one of the cars is a hybrid, I need to save gas until we can all go out and suck on fumes all day."

"I'm going to change, then. It's warm out there." Madison scooted her chair back, stood, and pushed it back in before leaving the dining room and ascending the stairs.

Nick looked down at his half-dirtied basketball shorts and tank top. "Eh, no sense changing if I'll be sweating."

"So gross," Ofelia rolled her eyes playfully. "You've been wearing that for two days."

"I'm not used to clean clothes!" Nick shrugged.

Alicia tugged at the legs of her sweatpants, but the cuffs at the bottom clung to her ankles. "I need to borrow shorts."

"Oh sure, come pick out a pair." Elyza hopped up and motioned for Alicia to follow her upstairs. They entered the blonde's room, and Alicia detected a hint of a sweet perfume. "Do you want boy shorts, gym shorts, bermudas?"

"Gym shorts."

Elyza dug through the drawers of her taller dresser and pulled out basic black gym shorts. "Here you go. And just let me know if you need to laundry, I'll give you the rundown on the machines."

"Thanks," Alicia smiled bashfully. "I actually need to do that when we get back."

"No problem, I have some things to throw in too."

Alicia nodded once and headed to her room.

Everybody knew their walk back up the hill would be hell. Alicia, Nick, and Ofelia could have easily fit into the high-walled wagon together and rode down the sidewalk without the need for being pushed or pulled, but a broken arm in the apocalypse carried more risk of complications than any of them were willing to wager against. Of course, that didn't stop them from taking turns sitting in it while someone else guided.

With the assistance of the decline, the group reached their destination in ten minutes. The glass doors were locked, but couldn't hold up against a bobby pin straight from Elyza's hair.

The entirety of the thrift store appeared untouched. Everything was as orderly as it possibly could have been in the first place, with a thin layer of dust to prove it.

"Isn't it kind of odd nobody's gone through all this?" Ofelia asked by a large shelf as she ran her fingers along books' spines.

Nick mumbled, "I don't think this part of town was big on thrift shops anyway."

Elyza chuckled and swung her metal bat like a pendulum. "My guess would be that anyone who came this way made a break for the mansions. Haven't seen anyone up there though, so I can't be sure."

"The market next store is probably a different story." Madison slid clothes on hangers across the metal bars holding them.

"Oh yeah, without a doubt," Elyza projected her voice, "But all we need from there is laundry detergent."

"And dryer sheets," Alicia added. "Binoculars and walkie-talkies if possible."

Nick popped his head over the aisles of the electronics section. "There are some walkie-talkies over here! Rechargeable!"

"What luck!" Elyza jogged to Nick from across the store to read the back of the box. "Only two, but we can work with that." She turned the box over to inspect the items. One was painted to look like Spongebob, the other to look like Patrick. She laughed. "You gotta do what you gotta do, I guess."

Nick joined in on the laughter and tossed the box into the wagon beside him. "Maybe we'll get lucky and find Mr. Krabs binoculars."

"Well, they certainly couldn't be Plankton." Elyza winked and moseyed over to the toy section, where Alicia dug through piles of ratty stuffed animals, rejecting everything her hands touched. "Looking for anything in particular?"

"Not really." Alicia's focus remained on the task at hand. Her skin crawled at the fact she was touching toys that once belonged to children (whom she did not like whatsoever). Obviously, whatever germs or viruses that once lurked on them were long gone, but something about the toys felt dirty to her. The plastic toys didn't bother her so much, but she may as well have been shoving her hands in a vat of germs instead of the mounds of stuffed animals. "Nick found walkie-talkies?"

"Spongebob ones, but yes." Elyza glanced over the top shelf of toys, an occasional childhood memory surfacing at the sight of older playthings. "I don't think we'll have the same luck finding binoculars."

"Were there any people in your neighborhood who liked hunting?"

Elyza placed her hands on her hips and stared down at the floor, contemplating. "Not that I can remember."

"Hm." Alicia huffed. Still sorting, she'd worked her way a few feet over since Elyza joined her.

"Are you sure I can't help you find anything?"

"I'm sure." The brunette's eyes never moved from her busy hands.

"Do you need to look for clothes?"

"Everything in my room fits me." Her hands paused and she remained crouched, silent, for another moment. "Maybe I'll find something I like." Alicia straightened up and weaved through standing shelves to the racks of clothes her mother and Ofelia picked through.

Elyza followed Alicia down the rows of hangers, scoping through shirt after shirt that Alicia passed. The blonde wished she could shop as efficiently as the other girl; Alicia scanned what she could see of the shirts as she walked, only stopping at a color, pattern, or fit that intrigued her... so, rarely. She'd only been searching for two minutes by the time she passed Madison and Ofelia, covering the same ground in a quarter of the time. She breezed through the pants, pajamas, and miscellaneous items before the others could make it even halfway through the pants. Alicia tossed her picks into the wagon and used her spare time to comb through the chaotic toy section once more.

From the racks of clothes, Elyza peered over the standing shelves to watch Alicia's search. Surely the brunette must have been looking for something specific, she tossed each toy aside without spending any more than a couple seconds inspecting it.

"I can't figure it out, either."

Elyza jumped at the sudden voice behind her and whirled around to Ofelia.

"Sorry."

"It's fine," Elyza held a hand against her chest as if it would slow her pounding heart. "But what do you mean?"

"She's looking for something, I just don't know what."

"I tried asking if she needed help finding anything, but she said no." Elyza shrugged.

However, neither of them missed the way Alicia stealthily stuffed something into one of her pockets, patting it down to flatten it. The item still formed a bulge beneath the fabric, and the brunette readjusted it to no avail. Finally, she stuck her hands in her pockets and turned to walk back to the group, barely missing Elyza and Ofelia turning their heads the opposite direction.

"Everyone ready?" Madison asked, and the group nodded, headed for the door.

A single walker shambled through the parking lot. The group's movement out the door caught its attention and it reached forward as it ambled.

"I got it." Elyza lifted her bat to her shoulder, casually walked over to the zombie, and slammed the barrel against the side of its head. The decaying body dropped to the asphalt. The blonde shook the blood off the bat and held it against her shoulder before joining everyone in the market.

Just as they expected, the majority of the market had already been ravaged. Entire shelves laid on the floor and each other, covered in empty boxes and wrappers. Light beaming in from the windows illuminated the dreary mart. Without hope for leftover food, they made a beeline for the household products.

Dried detergent and fabric softener blanketed the sticky aisle floor. "Damn, those heathens made a mess just for the hell of it." Elyza hopped over blue and green puddles, all the while inspecting the shelves, grabbing whatever bottles remained unopened and tossing them to Nick to set it in the wagon. "I was hoping for more than six bottles, but that'll do for a while."

"Alicia!" Ofelia yelled in a panic.

The others turned to the youngest girl and the undead body coming up behind her.

It took her a moment, but she recognized the expressions on their faces as fear and whirled around just as the walker leaned forward to grab her. She ripped her hands from her pockets, ignoring the faint clatter by her feet as she pushed the rotting not-person away to give herself time to grab a knife from its sheath on her waistband and drive it through one of the zombie's eye sockets. It crumpled at her feet, and as she watched it, she caught sight of the item from her pocket beside her right foot.

"I thought we were done with this!" Madison exclaimed as her eyes fell on the object: a set of large, colorful, plastic keys on a ring. "The baby toys, the childish interests!"

Alicia quickly wiped the blade on the walker's shirt and returned it to its sheath. "Mom, I-"

"Don't you remember all the teasing at school? All the strangers staring in public? Have you forgotten-"

"Mom!" Alicia's voiced echoed through the store, and the power of it shocked the group, including Madison. "I don't care! I like it, it feels good in my hands, and it's nice to look at! Fuck what everyone else thinks! Fuck everybody's expectations of me!"

Madison sighed. "I didn't put you through ABA therapy for you to-"

"And fuck ABA therapy!" Alicia yelled. "I just want to live the way that makes me happy, especially now in this hellhole of a planet!" She snatched the keys from the floor and stuffed them back in her pocket. "Nobody owns me, nobody controls me. Not anymore."

"Alicia-"

"Mom." Nick held out a hand, palm facing down, to signal an end to the discussion. He turned his gaze to his sister. "Do you want to head back with Elyza while we try to find anything else here?"

Alicia nodded once, stiffly, and turned to walk out the door, followed by the Australian girl.

Nick sighed. "Mom, do you really think grilling her on what she likes is a good idea?"

"I just don't want her to be judged, she's always had so much trouble with other people."

"Who's here to judge her now?" Nick questioned. "I'm not, Ofelia's not, Elyza's not - all that's left is you."

"I'm not judging my own daughter." Madison rebutted.

"Really? Because you're the only one who gets upset about every autistic thing she does." Nick spoke with finality. He pulled the wagon further into the store.

Alicia silently fumed on the uphill trek. She didn't speak. Elyza prepared to appease the vexed woman, but thought better of it when the brunette flinched at her short coughing fit.  
Thereafter, the only sound coming from either of them was heavy breathing.

Elyza sat on the sidewalk when they reached the front gate of the house. She patted the spot next to her when Alicia remained on her feet and stared down the hill. "We should wait out here, I need to open the gate for them."

After a moment of hesitation, Alicia lowered herself to the pavement beside the blonde. She pulled the keys from her pocket and slid them around the ring, still watching the hill.

Elyza floundered. The girl alongside her seemed to be winding down, so she didn't want to say anything to irk her. Yet, she still wanted to make it known she was there to listen. She generated and discarded multiple icebreakers before settling on something simple. "I'll listen if you want to talk about it."

Alicia tapped her middle fingers against the red key. A minute passed before she could form the words she wanted to use, but Elyza sat patiently, unmoving. "Stimming with baby toys doesn't make me a baby. They just happen to be better than those stupid fidgets that were targeted at 'stressed adults' -" she paused, then tacked on, "in my opinion."

Elyza remained silent, waiting for more, but Alicia didn't continue. "I don't think you're a baby," Elyza smiled cautiously at the brunette, even though her eyes fixated on the downhill road.

"Thanks," Alicia mumbled, "I'm an adult, I want to be treated like one." She slid the keys around the ring for a moment, then laughed indignantly under her breath. "I say that as I sit here with a fucking baby toy."

"I think I've heard you say 'fuck' more in the past twenty minutes than in the entire time I've known you," Elyza chuckled.

Alicia cracked a smile. "Well fuck, my bad."

Elyza laughed. "Is this you getting comfortable with me? Because if it's not, I can't begin to imagine what you might say when you are."

"You're good company, it's been a while since I could sit and laugh like this with someone." Alicia finally tore her gaze away from the road and looked at the blonde. Actually, she couldn't think of a time when she ever felt this light, even after a confrontation with her mom.

Elyza studied Alicia's green eyes and detected a hint of something other than the immense sincerity. It drew her in like a magnet, and she didn't realize she was leaning closer to the brunette until their noses brushed. Shit, she thought, I just crossed the line. She began to retreat at a glacial pace, but to her amazement, Alicia closed the gap and kissed her.

Alicia had allowed her gut to take control of the situation - not that her brain protested. The feeling of Elyza's soft lips moving against hers sent the neurons in her brain into overdrive, and her senses shouted soundlessly. She could almost feel the cells in her body tensing up in a pleasant way, for once.

The kiss was short-lived and delicate, but the thrill of it left both women speechless as they locked eyes, both grinning.


	11. Chapter 11

Alicia's stockpile of stim toys - though pale in comparison to her collection at home - steadily grew. Two months from the fresh start with the weighted bear (and meeting Elyza), her supply contained said bear, plastic keys (the instance which ultimately led Madison to sit down with her daughter and finally ask questions, which then led to acceptance), a plastic rainstick, bean bags, and a fidget spinner...though she hated to admit she liked it.

And now, courtesy of Elyza, she added a glow-in-the-dark Hoberman sphere to her hoard. The blonde recovered it while siphoning gas with Madison, Nick, and Ofelia earlier in the day. After her first experience just a few weeks earlier, Alicia opted out of the nausea and headache, even though she now knew the correct way to suck out the liquid.

Perched on an arm of the largest couch upstairs, Alicia expanded and contracted the toy, lightly chattering her teeth together.

Madison and Ofelia snacked on plums in the kitchen while Elyza and Nick plugged in the air hockey table to play a round.

Though her gaze remained on the growing and shrinking of the sphere, Alicia grinned at the laughing and yelling several feet to her left. The two were evenly matched: Nick with his wits, Elyza with her reflexes. However, every post-goal groan that reached her ears was unmistakably Elyza's, which only widened her smile.

After seven goals (all Nick's), the small scoreboard on the side of the table beeped and reset to 0 on both sides.

"Winner winner chicken dinner!" Nick threw his fists in the air. "Loser chooses next victim."

Elyza smirked and walked over to Alicia, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Will you kick your brother's ass in air hockey for me?"

Alicia nodded eagerly and tossed the toy onto the couch before sliding off the arm and jogging to the table.

Nick glided the neon green puck to his sister. "Bring it on."

Alicia firmly grasped the striker and centered the puck. She faked a tap to the right and at near-lightning speed shot the puck straight down the middle of the table where it clattered into Nick's goal.

"Beginner's luck," Nick stated in the cockiest voice he could muster after such a simple mistake. He wasted no time hitting the puck as hard as he could, but dropped his jaw in disbelief when Alicia countered by slapping it against the side so it would ricochet into the goal at an angle. "You're cheating."

Alicia shook her head as Nick prepared for his next shot. "You might as well just tap out."

"Not in a million years, Leesh." He attempted Alicia's fake out, but the woman blocked the puck's path and shot it back, barely missing the goal. Nick angled his next shot to fly in from the side, but to no avail. Alicia swiftly slapped the disc at a smaller angle, causing it to bounce off the sides of the table several times before gliding into the goal. "Okay, you win," Nick lifted both his hands then pointed at Elyza, "I'd like to see you take her on."

"Those million years passed in the blink of an eye," Elyza teased and chuckled when Nick flipped her off on his way to the kitchen where Ofelia and Madison chatted about the contents of the cars that day. She placed the puck on the table and held her paddle over it, keeping it in place. Her eyes met Alicia's, and unbeknownst to her, the brunette's heart rate jumped from an adrenaline rush unrelated to the game. "Are you going to top me, too?"

Alicia wondered if the innuendo was intentional. Nothing came of the kiss on the curb, but tension of every kind mounted over the following weeks. Elyza slipped in what Alicia suspected were double entendres anytime possible, but none as blatant as this. Fuck it, she thought. "Not in air hockey."

Elyza quirked a brow at the woman's newfound boldness. For once, however, she was the first to break eye contact.

How had she not thought of it earlier?

Elyza and Ofelia discussed the future and what it held, including the eventual extinction of gasoline. Elyza mentioned the hybrid car she owned, but feared they would be stranded if the charge ran out and gas no longer existed.

"But you live in a rich neighborhood, don't you think someone around here would have a car that runs only on electricity, and efficiently so? You already have the home charger, you have solar panels, you just have to find the car."

Elyza stared into oblivion. "I am such a fucking idiot," she muttered, too ashamed of her own stupidity to meet Ofelia's amused gaze. "Yeah, okay, let's find that car."

They gathered up the rest of the group from the backyard, grabbed weapons, and headed out the gate to scour the neighborhood.

Three houses produced nothing but rotting bodies keening for a meal. The fourth house required brute force to open the wooden front gate, and the front yard held the final resting places for three dogs and one human, each with a bullet through the head.

"I don't think I could kill my own dog," Nick mumbled as they inspected the body for anything useful.

"I'd rather shoot the dog than let it starve to death," Madison replied, nose crinkling at the stench.

The front door of the house stood ajar. Alicia knocked on the dense wood to draw out whatever ghouls may be lurking, but the only movement the group detected was that of a rat scurrying under a couch. She led the group down a hallway, knife at the ready, and flung open all the cabinets upon reaching a kitchen. "Oh jackpot."

Madison, Nick, and Ofelia loaded their backpacks with granola bars, crackers, tea bags, and chips. Elyza opened the fridge doors to find bottle after bottle, can after can of beer. Before she could think to grab any of them, the foul odor of spoiled produce assaulted her nose and forced her to slam the doors shut. She coughed, "We'll come back for those."

Elyza assumed the rugged door beside the refrigerator would lead to the garage. At least, that made the most sense. She shoved the door open and jumped forward, ready to swing, but the stomps of her feet echoed through the half-empty garage. She stalked toward the only car in the room...a silver Chevy Bolt.

"I cannot believe we actually found one." Ofelia gaped and shook her head.

"I swear I have the best fuckin' luck," Elyza grinned and ran her fingers along the hood of the car. "But we need to find the keys."

"Might as well just go through the whole place." Nick shrugged. "I'll look for the keys."

"Madison and I will look around downstairs." Ofelia glanced over at Elyza and winked when Madison started back toward the front room.

Real smooth, Elyza thought and rolled her eyes at Ofelia before she turned to join Madison. Nick stepped into the garage and shut the door behind himself. "I guess that leaves us upstairs," Elyza chanced a look at Alicia, but the brunette had already scaled the first few steps across the room. The blonde smirked and jogged over to catch up, quickly tailing right behind the other woman. "A little eager, are we?"

Alicia marched straight into the room farthest to the left from the stairs, not taking even a second to acknowledge Elyza's teasing.

The blonde followed two steps behind. "What's the hurry?"

Alicia faced the wall, her back to Elyza, and squeezed her hands together with a bend at the wrists. The past weeks' tension certainly hadn't passed her by, and she attributed Elyza's comment before their game of air hockey as the straw that broke the camel's back. All the stimming in the world couldn't curb her impulses forever, and because of that, she finally gave in. She steadied her breath as quickly as possible, turned to the patiently waiting woman, and surged forward to kiss her.

Elyza couldn't deny she'd seen this coming, but the reality of it proved more joyous than the imaginary. She planned to remain chaste, but the girl adding pressure to the kiss and grabbing fistfuls of the blonde's coat seemed to have other ideas. It wasn't until the brunette nipped at Elyza's bottom lip that she decided to throw innocence out the window. She backed Alicia into a wall and grabbed both sides of her waist, fingers pressing into the skin just above the waistband of her jeans. She became so enraptured in the heated moment she forgot to breathe, but didn't realize until her head spun and she heard her own panting as Alicia brushed her lips across the sensitive skin just below her ear. Despite her attempt to bring her oxygen levels back to normal, her breath hitched at the sensation of teeth tugging the skin over her left carotid. Before she could contain it, a moan resounded from her throat, and the lips pressed against her lower neck tilted upward.

Alicia pulled back and rested her head against the wall. Her fists still held tight to the dark cloth around Elyza's torso, but her expression appeared calm, almost sated.

Elyza, on the other hand, couldn't shake the tension in her lower gut, legs, and shoulders. She took in the tranquil demeanor of the girl before her, but noticed immediately that green eyes betrayed whatever body language the brunette exhibited. The familiar emerald color darkened into a pine green, and the stare's intensity almost made her squirm.

...Almost.

"Is that all you've got?" Elyza smirked, egging her on.

Alicia smiled devilishly for a brief moment before her expression shifted to something neutral. She abruptly nudged past Elyza, paced to the other side of the room, and pretended to dig through the drawers of a desk.

"What-"

"Hey guys, we're ready when you are." Ofelia poked her head through the door for a second then shuffled down the stairs.

Astonished, Elyza turned her head from the doorway to Alicia. "You heard her coming?"

"Call it a curse and a blessing." A faint smile ghosted across her lips. She turned to lean back against the desk. "I'm sorry if I got carried away."

"Don't apologize." Elyza placed her hands on her hips, taking a moment to stabilize herself before even considering facing the rest of the group. "I... really enjoyed it. And I would be more than happy to do it again."


	12. Update

Hello everyone! If you're reading this, I imagine you were looking for the next chapter of this story. Unfortunately, I've decided to stop updating on here. I'll still be updating on Archive Of Our Own and Wattpad, where my stories have the same names. Thank you for understanding!


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